


Marukawa Knights: The Quest

by Oakenshieldsgold



Category: Junjou Romantica
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Fantasy, Gamer AU - Freeform, M/M, Magic, Mild Angst, Mild Language, Minor Violence, Quests, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-04-16 09:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4619451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oakenshieldsgold/pseuds/Oakenshieldsgold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shinobu and Misaki are a pair of gamers who decide to play "Marukawa Knights". However they are suddenly pulled into the video game world where they will have to complete quests to return home. Misaki must go and defeat the dark lord, Shinobu must become a spy for the royal family (and perhaps seduce a certain someone along the way). Of course Hiroki has to come along and shake things up a bit, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Start Game

Misaki Takahashi and Shinobu Takatsuki were gamers. They had been since they were young and they still were now, as high school students. Both thought they could live simple and happy lives, playing video games, getting a job, playing video games, getting married, playing video games. It would be great, they thought, they could make good lives for themselves and still do all that normal stuff. As if.

It began with a late night gaming session. Shinobu and Misaki planned to meet in the Mitsuhashi high school library to knock out a couple of hours of levelling up on their latest RPGs. Misaki walked quickly from his final class towards the library, where he could see the younger boy waiting for him.  
“Shinobu! sorry I’m late! Kamijou-sensei went way over today!” The younger boy did not look impressed  
“Don’t waste my time.” Misaki laughed uncertainly, he was never sure how serious Shinobu was when he said those kinds of things. They walked into the empty library and headed straight for the computers in the back corner of the room. They were just sitting down when they heard a tut from behind them.  
“Are you studying boys?” the librarian said with a frown. Misaki blanked but Shinobu quickly replied  
“yes.”  
“So you aren’t playing video games in here against school rules?” Shinobu knew the game was up. The librarian threw them out, expressing a desire to never see their faces in her library again.  
“What should we do now? I don’t have a computer?” Misaki said disheartened. Shionbu frowned and then started walking “where are we going?”  
“It’s justdown here, I’m sure…”  
“What is? Shinobu!” the boy escorted Misaki deep into the school, through doors he had never even seen and down several flights of stairs. They only stopped once they had reached an old and flaking door. From outside they could see through the small dusty window. Inside were three computer moniters all of which were glowing green with life.  
“We can play in here, I’m sure no one will care, it’s not like anyone was using it anyway.” Misaki nodded and pushed the door open.

They had barely just touched the mouse when a game popped up on the screen.  
“Someone must have had the same idea as us” Misaki said surprised. The game was called ‘Marukawa Knights: the quest” the graphics were poor and the name promised only a stereotypical fantasy RPG. Shinobu rolled his eyes and tutted in frustration  
“the computer won’t let me exit.”  
“we could just play it, I mean, what harm could it do?” Shinobu slumped back  
“Fine, at least it kills the time I guess.” Without realising, both men sat up straighter and moved their mouses. Simultaneously both Misaki and Shinobu clicked ‘begin’.

For a moment everything was binary and then there was only darkness. When Shinobu opened his eyes he was lying alone in the middle of a lush green field. He sat up quickly, stunned. He could have sworn he was in the computer room only moments ago. he got to his feet and looked around. Sure enough he was now in a very real and green field. Just ahead of him he could see a fence and a stone pathway which wound it way up a steep green hill. He had no clue where he was, but one thing was certain, Misaki was nowhere to be seen.  
“Misaki!?” He called out cautiously. only the rustling of trees greeted him. “Misaki where are you?” nothing. he threw his head back in frustration, and froze staring at the sky. Above his head, in spindly golden letters were the words “Street Dancer, lvl 1”. He stared at them for a moment  
“I-I can’t be, in the game?” he shook his head vigorously “of course I’m not, I’m just confused.” he walked purposefully towards the wooden gate and pushed it open. A golden window of light appeared before him “ahh!” He jumped back squinting at it.

Would you like to begin your quest?

Shinobu gaped at it. “my quest?” he thought. A horrible thought suddenly occurred to him. If he was in a game, surely the only way out was to finish the quest? He heaved a sigh

“Yes.” he said clearly to thin air.

you are a Street Dancer, you know how people think, you know what they like. You can use this knowledge as power or leverage. Play your cards right and the city could be in the palm of your hands. But you are poor and of common blood. First you must learn you trade. Travel to the city to meet your sister who will share her knowledge.

Sister? It couldn’t be… He gulped and walked straight through the golden window. There was only one path, surely it would lead him to some kind of destiny?

on the other side of the kingdom, Misaki Takahashi found himself in a remarkable situation. He had woken up on the back of a cantering horse, with a strange sign that read “Rookie Knight” above his head and a sword on his hip. He pulled the horse to and sat still for a moment. He gulped nervously and looked around the area. He had pulled up outside a tiny inn on an old road.  
“s-someone in there has to know what is going on.” He stumbled off his horse and walked shakily towards the inn. there was a large golden arrow above the door which disappeared as he pushed it open. “Am I in the game?” he muttered to himself.  
“Hello young knight, I am Gilda the Bar maid, would you care for a pint of mead?” Misaki stared at her, confused. behind her was an option bar.

Accept mead/Ask for information on location/stab with sword/exit inn

“s-stab with sword?” he thought to himself in horror. He walked towards the bar and said “Sorry, but could you tell me where I am?” she smiled, above her head the second option glowed green.

“Of course! you have found yourself in the Kingdom of Usami. My tavern is just a short ride from the city where the king himself lives.” Misaki was about to ask who Usami was when he heard some commotion from the table next to him

“Hey Gilda, quit talking to shorty there and come give us a kiss!”  
“Yeah give us a kiss, it’s all you’re good for!” The men laughed obnoxiously. Gilda cringed visibly. Suddenly in front of Misaki a golden box appeared

A quest has appeared! Defend Gilda’s honour.

Misaki gulped, doing what the box’s said before seemed to get him somewhere. He stood up a little straighter.  
“You should be more respectful towards women!” the laughter suddenly died. The man from the table looked him up and down, he stood up and Misaki could see just how huge this man was. He also noticed the golden name above his head: ‘Sir knight, lvl 27’. Misaki was a level 1. he gulped, this was going to hurt.

when Misaki came to, he was being tended to by Gilda and a black haired man. ‘Rookie Magician?” he thought curiously. Gilda spoke up pitifully  
“Thank you. You really didn’t need to do that, Misaki”  
“What happened to them?” Gilda smiled  
“I can handle those kind of guys on my own.” She smiled. Misaki’s eyes drifted to her name ‘Gilda the Barmaid, lvl 35.  
“I’ve healed him as much as I can, he should be ok for now.”  
“Thank you.” Misaki said earnestly. The man smiled  
“Don’t worry about it. If you don’t mind, Im going to leave now, I need to go to the scholars and get more magic texts.” The man left swiftly leaving Misaki on the floor. He turned to Gilda, he was desperate now  
“Gilda, you have to help me, I don’t belong here! I need to get home!” Gilda shook her head  
“No Misaki, you can’t go home, you can only go to the city or stay here and drink some mead.” Misaki sighed  
“What’s in the City?”  
“All trainee knights head to the city to swear fealty to the Usami family. There you will have the opportunity to gain experience by undertaking quests. If you do enough quests in service to the Usami family, then you can become a noble, and go live in your own home.”  
“Gilda, if I want to leave the kingdom…is that possible.” Gilda stared at him for a moment he thought that she had understood. But either she chose to ignore his real question or did not understand it  
“Who would want to leave this kingdom? there is nowhere else to go.”

Shinobu had walked for what felt like hours before he reached the city gates. They were heavily guarded and closed to outsiders. A golden options bar appeared

approach guards/find a secret entrance/turn back

Yeah right like he was going to sneak around when those guys could probably kill him in a minute. He approached the guards  
“Halt, who goes there.”

Seduce guards/ stab with hidden knife/run away

Shinobu groaned internally. Only one of these was even an option. How does one even seduce? He walked closer to the guard. 'I guess I’ll let the character do it for me…' he thought unenthusiastically. He slowly began to move his hips circling them enticingly for the guard coming closer until he was almost touching the man. He was handsome, Shinobu had to admit and he found himself enjoying this more than he thought. He reached up and wrapped his arms around the taller man. he was clearly older, but something about him made Shinobu want to mess him up completely. He was really going for it now, seeing the lust in the man’s eyes, he leant up to his ear  
“How about you let me in?” he pulled away from the guard who broke out of his daze and looked down at the younger man. Shinobu could have sworn he saw the shadow of a smirk on his face.  
“Why not?” he said at last. The guard unlocked the gate and swung it open. Shinobu walked through the gates and stared in awe of his surroundings. The buildings were all tall and built from rough brick and wood. There were stands all around selling so many useful looking things and some not so. He stared at the crowds in front of him. How would he ever find this sister? He made his way deeper into the city and it became increasingly clear that not only would he never find her, but also that he was therefore, never going home.

Hiroki walked slowly down the corridor. It had been a bad day. He just couldn't understand why everyone in his class was such waste of space? He shook his head. As he passed the disused economics office he saw the light of a few computer monitors still shining through the glass. He rolled his eyes, some stupid kids had been playing around in there again. "Probably those gamer delinquents" he thought. He pushed the door open and walked up to the monitor. "I'll just turn it off." He thought he reached over to the mouse of the third computer. "Whoops" he said, as he accidentally clicked on the "begin" button.


	2. The Dancer's Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am going to organise this story by character. This is Shinobu's section and next will be Hiroki's or Misaki's :) Enjoy!

“This is impossible!” Shinobu was walking through the busy city completely and hopelessly lost. To his left there were tall buildings with thatched roofs and shuttered windows. To his right were more identical buildings. There was nothing to signify that he was any closer to the city centre which he had been trying to find for the past hour. “Dammit I’m going in circles! Where are those quest cards when you need them?” The boy walked over to a bench and collapsed onto it, exhausted. He stared absent minded at the building opposite, trying to ease his mind. He blinked. What was that on the door? Curious, he stood up his worries supressed for now, and approached the wooden door. On it there was a small symbol of a tankard glowing silver. As he got closer a task bar popped up:

Enter Tavern

Shinobu frowned, turning towards another building. Was his hunch correct? Sure enough, when he approached the next building he saw a different symbol. A sword.

No entry, level 20 Guild Knights and above.

Shinobu had seen this before in hundreds of basic RPGs. Each building had a different purpose, or belonged to a different guild. The symbols on the doors told him what each place was.  
“Now what I really need is a map, so I can remember places.” He thought to himself. He started looking around for a symbol which would indicate ‘Shop’ or ‘Merchant’. Suddenly he stopped. He had an idea. “Uh... Open inventory” he said hesitantly. Sure enough a golden panel appeared in front of him. He was surprise to see he had been given things already.

Inventory: Gold Coins x1, Silver Coins x2, Copper Coins x5. Basic cloak x1, Satchel x1. Fan x1

“Fan? What’s that for...?” then he remembered, eyes flicking up to the title floating above his head “Oh yeah. Seduction.” He rolled his eyes making a promise to himself there and then to never use that fan. He tried to scroll down but his items list ended there. No map. “Open map?” nothing happened. He sighed, he’d have to work for something it seemed. He closed his inventory and began walking again, keeping his eyes peeled for a merchant. A few streets over he saw a man standing by a large wooden cart piled high with goods. Shinobu approached him and made a mental note of the strange snakelike squiggle which seemed to be the currency sign in this city.  
“Welcome customer, you are welcome to browse my items, they’re the finest in the city.” A task bar appeared:

Browse items/ Seduce Merchant for freebies

Shinobu’s jaw dropped. Seduction was NOT the answer for all of his problems. He began browsing, digging his way through what seemed to be rubbish, until he found what he was looking for.  
“How much is this?” he asked the merchant  
“that boy is one gold and 2 silvers.” Shinobu gulped. That was almost all he had. The task bar reappeared.

Pay/ Steal/ Seduce Merchant for freebies

He was doing this to survive, if he spent all his money now and got in trouble then there was no telling what would happen. He shivered unhappily before selecting the third option. The game seemed to do the work for him. He walked forwards, smiling coyly at the merchant. He began to gyrate his hips sensually, only just brushing the body of the other man.  
“You know,” he said unexpectedly, this game was really taking a hold of him “I’m not a rich person… I can barely afford these clothes.” He sighed playing with the hem of his shirt. The merchant seemed to be enjoying his performance “maybe I can take the map freely? Just this once?” The merchant smiled. He pulled Shinobu forward and began to feel him up. Shinobu suddenly lost confidence, his insides squirming. The man’s arms were too strong for him to pull away.  
“Don’t struggle now, we were just starting to enjoy ourselves.” Shinobu had made a mistake. The task bar shone just outside of his view

Scream/ Give up

What the hell were those options?! He wouldn’t give up. But he wouldn’t scream. He was about to try pushing away when he felt the other man move away from him. Or rather, he felt the other man be yanked away from him. Shinobu jumped away and looked around to see what happened. The merchant was on the floor a foot on his head. Standing over him was the guard, the same one he had seduced at the gate.  
“You alright kiddo?” He asked mildly concerned. Shinobu nodded. A small part of him hoped that the man didn’t recognise him. But there was another side of him that wondered whether the man had saved him because he remembered him… He was curious either way.  
“Why did you help me?” He asked quickly. The man took a moment to answer  
“You know, when you seduced me at the gate I knew what you were playing at, and because I was bored I decided to spice up my day and to see what would happen if I let you in. Thankfully just as I let you in my underling walked past and I gave him my job. So here I am minding my own business, definitely not following you, and I see you doing your thing, getting into trouble." He pressed his foot down a little harder on the merchant "You know you can use that skill freely, but not everyone here is a decent person. Be careful. I might not be there to help next time.” The man lifted his foot from the merchant’s head. The let out a pitiful whimper “shut up be glad I didn’t kill you.” He turned around “later kiddo.” Shinobu watched wide eyed as he began to walk away  
“Wait, what’s your name?” He called out suddenly. The other man looked back, slightly surprised  
“Miyagi.” He left. Shinobu watched him walk round a corner and disappear into the crowd. He fell in love instantly.

As he walked his map updated, telling him the purpose of each building around him. Everything was so much clearer now. He studied the it closely, looking for something that might lead him to his 'sister'. For a while there was nothing, just more taverns and guilds. Then he saw it. A flower glowing gold. "Gold must be the colour of missions." He deduced, proud of his discovery. He followed the map and found himself in front of a plain wooden building, which was only distinguishable by the presence of the beautiful men and women pounding at the windows and waving at passers by. This was the place. He was sure of it. He approached the large door. Suddenly and large golden panel appeared "Legacy Quest". Shinobu stared at it. If he went by his gaming knowledge, Legacy Quest must be the main aim of the game. Until then everything had been world building and discovering. If he went inside the real game was beginning and he would be a step closer to going home. He read the title

The Snake and the Lion:  
An enemy faction has began to secretly plot a coup to topple the beloved King from his thrown. His only legitimate son was lost years ago and if the faction is not defeated, the Kingdom will be torn apart. You mission is to infiltrate the faction and discover their secrets and use them to tear their regime apart.  
Accept/ Deny

Shinobu gulped. He had no idea how he was going to be able to do this. It sounded like a big task, surely there was someone more skilled than him who could do this. "What have I gotten myself into...?" he asked himself shaking his head. "Well it's not like I have a choice" he stepped forward and pushed open the large door. "I accept."


	3. The Knight's Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Took a bit longer than I hoped! I had really bad writers block! I hope you enjoy this anyway!
> 
> I have a LOT of Junjou AU's lined up, most of them longer stories, but I told myself I'm not going to start any of them until my two current stories are done! However if you have requests for drabbles or one shots I'd love to do them for you :D Just leave a request in the comments!
> 
> Thanks for reading <3

“What. Is. This?” Misaki stared in horror at the golden panel in front of him. He had just walked approached the inner city gates. He had found out from a helpful NPC that all he had to do was knock to gain entry. He rolled his eyes at how ridiculous this all was. He tapped three times on the heavy wooden door and not a second later it appeared before him:

Our world is one full of magic and mystery. For centuries humans and warlocks have lived in harmony however an evil force has disturbed the balance of our worlds. A Dark Lord hides away in his hidden castle kidnapping people and bringing war to our kingdom. Only one Knight can save us all from these dark forces. This person is you.

“TO GET OUT OF HERE I HAVE TO DO WHAT?! I DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR THIS!” he moaned. How could he possibly defeat a dark lord? He couldn't even beat up those drunks from the tavern! “Oh damn it all…” He said to himself, annoyed. He looked at the floating, glowing, panel again.

Accept/ Decline

Misaki sighed. He had no choice, if he wanted to get back to the real world he had to do his quest. “This Dark Lord better not be a pain in the arse…” He pinched his brows together and reluctantly said “Accept”. The doors to the inner city swung open revealing an astounding sight. Misaki’s jaw dropped.

Inside the walls stood a white stone castle of magnificent size. It was set high upon a mountain of spiralling paths and roads. Along these were smaller but well designed buildings serving every function the castle might require All these buildings were seemingly carved straight from the white rock. Halfway up were stables for horses which seemed to wrap from one side of the mountain to the other. Higher up were more beautiful, but smaller, houses which Misaki assumed nobles and knights lived in. They were white stone with marble statues and ornately carved designs adorning the fronts. But none of these smaller dwellings could compare to the magnificent artwork which was the palace itself. There were at least 10 floors above the rock and only god knew how many basements below. There were turrets that looked as though they might just reach heaven, and gravity seemed not to have been an issue, as there were bridges and towers built off the main castle which defied all laws of physics and architecture.  
The grounds in front of him caught his attention last. They were far from the beauty of the castle. There were old brown buildings on either side of the entrance with various smaller buildings dotted about the ground. None of these were made from the clean white rock, but from weathered wood and what looked like mud bricks. There was a large open space in the center where a group of poorly dressed boys with swords on their waists stood. His heart sank, this was obviously where he would be doing his training. An options bar appeared

Begin training/ explore barracks/ exit castle grounds

He sighed, better now then never. He chose to begin his training and approached the group of boys. He called them boys because they all looked quite young, but as he got closer he realised with disappointment that, like usual, he was the shortest one there.  
“Damn if Shinobu was here he’d look like a dwarf…” He said to himself  
“What’s that about dwarves?! Did you see one? It stole my sword! Where is it!?” Misaki jumped, alarmed at the loud voice beside him. A black haired man with a steel helmet on and a wild look in his eye stared down Misaki. He was still frozen in surprise.  
“I-I’m sorry?” The other man relented slightly, reducing the intensity of his gaze a fraction  
“You… haven’t seen a dwarf?” Misaki shook his head slowly. The other man put his head in his hands  
“Damn it… How can I start this without even having a weapon?” Misaki’s eyes quickly flicked up to the man’s head. To his surprise he wasn’t an NPC but a level 2 Rookie Knight. His heart jumped  
“Are you from the real world?!” He asked hopefully. The other man blinked at him confused.  
“What? This is the real world.” Misaki groaned  
“Never mind.” He couldn’t cheat his way out of this one. He had to finish the quest. “Are you training here?” The other man nodded and held out his hand  
“Yeah, you could say I’m undergoing a change of proffesion. Mizuki, nice to meet you.” Misaki took it  
“I’m Misaki.” For some reason the name seemed to ring a bell with him. Where had he heard it before? Suddenly a wave of silence swept over the crowd and Misaki’s attention was drawn to an intimidating man at the front of the crowd.  
“My name is Haruhiko, and I am the strongest Knight in this land. I am here to train you, but also to prepare the toughest of you for a quest to rid this kingdom of it’s most dangerous enemy. Dark Lord Akihiko” Murmurs broke out in the crowd and again Misaki couldn’t help but feel as though he had heard these names somewhere before. “I know many of you are scared. But I promise under my guidance you will all become great knights.” Misaki felt doubtful. He knew that he had to do this to escape, but nether the less he couldn’t help but feel apprehensive at the road ahead.

Far away in a huge, dark and menacing palace a grey haired man watched the little people of the stone kingdom through his magic portal. It buzzed with a dull black and green light, framing the view of the people within. It was the same old usual thing; boring little merchants going around their boring days with even more boring knoghts protecting peoples boring honour. He was about to move away when something caught his eye. More specifically, someone caught his eye. A small brown haired boy was walking through the cobbled streets confused and muttering to himself annoyed. He often walked into things and unlike most characters in this story, he completely stopped every time an options bar came up. He hadn’t even looked at his in years. He watched the boy closer, ignoring his cute yet handsome face for the time being and instead watching his actions closely. It took Akihiko only moments to realise that this was rookie knight was a foreigner to this land. He watched the boy approach Mizuki and begin talking to him.  
“Are you from the real world?!” he heard the boy shout hopefully. Akihiko smiled, for the first time in years he had finally found someone interesting in this place.  
“I’m Misaki” he heard the boy say.  
“Misaki” he rolled the name on his tongue and smiled wickedly “welcome to my world.”


	4. First Person Shooter

Hiroki was running for his life. How he had gotten there he had no idea, all he knew was that he had somehow been teleported onto what looked like a world war two battlefield. Bullets were flying thick and fast, only the adrenaline pulsing through his veins was keeping him alive. It had taken him a moment to realise what he was seeing thanks to the strange dials and maps that had appeared around him. At first he was running blind, then he noticed that on the map in the corner, a small red dot was running wherever he was. He passed a tank and sure enough that too was on the map. Using this he picked his way through the unknown area trying to find a safe place to freak out. What the hell was going on? 

“Get down soldier!” he heard a voice coming from his headset, that was new. He looked on his map. Sure enough a bomb had appeared only metres away from him. “shit”. He ran and threw himself behind an upturned cart. Boom. He could feel the ground trembling beneath him. Once the dust settled and his ears stopped ringing, he could hear the sounds of the battle recommence. He had half a mind to stay here but he heard that voice again  
“Get moving private! We need to secure the base. Over.” Was it possible that he could actually have been transported back in time? But then why would ha have all of these maps and floating signs and a re-spawn bar? Unless…  
“I’m in the damn game? That’s impossible.” But the more Hiroki looked at the enemy, the more apparent it became that the allies had never fought a battle against Nazi zombies. They were running beastlike on the battle field, shooting sporadic bullets into the ever diminishing crowd of soldiers. Hiroki took a shaky breath. “Finish the game. Ask questions later.” He darted out from his hiding place and was immediately jumped by a faceless Nazi. He closed his eyes and shot wildly. Once, twice, three times and then… Thump. He heard it collapse in front of him.

Once he had taken whatever ammo he could salvage from the body, he scoured his surroundings, taking care to keep his head low to avoid any bullets. There was a large wall, fronted by a concrete building. A French flag flew from the top floor. Suddenly it glowed and the name appeared on top “Frontière des forces Française”. That was where he had to go.

There was a split second when the bullets stopped and both sides reloaded. That was his chance. He jumped up. He could feel the blasts rattling his bones, it was enough to shake him but he had a goal now. Finish the quest and get out. He was 20 metres away. 15. 10. Bang. He fell flat on his back in to the mud crying out in pain. His vision blurred, was he dying. None of the players around him stopped to help or even noticed him. Even if it was only a game, how could they let someone die like this? Hiroki shakily felt his torso and the cavity that no occupied the right side of his body. He pulled his hand away. So much blood. He closed his eyes, resigning himself to his fate.

Someone grabbed his shoulders. His eyes sprung open. A man with jet black hair and ashy blue eyes was staring at him, transfixed. Without even word Hiroki knew that this man was different. Strength began to flood back into his body, he tried to move but the other man was still hypnotised by him. So much so that he didn’t see the Nazi zombie about to jump them. “Look out!”. It took all the energy in his body to lift his arm. He shot twice and the soldier fell. The other man didn’t waste another second, pulled out of the trance by the sound of gunshots. He picked Hiroki up as though he was as light as a feather, and ran with him in his arms. He didn’t stop, even once they were inside  
“Why are you still running?!” He demanded. The hall was only so long and the wall was rapidly approaching.  
“Trust me.”  
“What the hell! I have no idea what’s going-” Suddenly the room began to glitch in and out of focus. It crumbled into a matrix of zeroes and ones swirling around them like a hurricane. The gun in his hands, the soldiers uniform he had been wearing disappeared, replaced by casual clothes he had never seen before. It became darker but the other man kept running, even when Hiroki could barely even make out his face anymore. Then, with a burst of light, they materialised on an LA street in the middle of the day. The pain on his side was gone.  
The man put him down on the side walk quickly then gestured at Hiroki to follow him  
“Don’t draw attention to yourself. Keep walking a bit longer and I’ll try to explain everything.” Hiroki struggled to keep up with the man’s long legged stride, occasionally jogging to be back at his side  
“Who are you?”  
“I’ll tell you later.”  
“Where are we?” The tall man looked around him  
“I’d say Grand Theft Auto, but I’m not sure which one.” Hiroki stopped dead.  
“What?” The tall man grabbed his hand and pulled  
“Don’t stop.” He tried to pull Hiroki along but he pulled away.  
“This is insane. Who are you? Tell me or I’m going nowhere.” he looked down at him clearly annoyed at his stubbornness. The noise of sirens pierced the otherwise silent air.  
“Crap.” The tall man looked around wildly. “Nowhere to hide. What to do…” His eyes fell on to Hiroki and the shorter man suddenly had a bad feeling. The man grabbed Hiroki’s shoulders and pushed him against the wall.  
“What are-” but he wasn’t allowed to finish. The tall man pressed his lips against Hiroki’s, silencing him. He jumped, pushing back but then the other man came closer. Their bodies were pressed against each other in the cramped space he had created. The tall man traced his tongue against Hiroki’s lips. It felt good enough for Hiroki to forget himself, he began to kiss back opening his mouth wider and allowing the other mans tongue to intertwine with his. Just as Hiroki was getting into it however, the man suddenly pulled away and released him. The sirens had disappeared and the street was silent again, other than the heavy breaths of Hiroki who was still leaning in shock against the wall. The other man looked back  
“I’m Nowaki. Can we go now?” He began to walk away. Hiroki, for a reason beyond his reasoning, followed him  
“What the hell was that?!” Hiroki asked, struggling to keep up again  
“Those police could have been looking for us, we had to hide.”  
“And you did that by, by, making out with someone.” Nowaki raised his eyebrows slightly  
“Public displays of affection make people look away.” Hiroki opened his mouth to bite back, but he decided not to. A part of him would rather forget about the whole thing.

He followed Nowaki through dirty alleyways and dodgy back roads, until they came to bar. It was in a strange place, tucked away from the main road with barely enough space out front for two people to stand in. There was a flickering neon sign set into the wall  
“The Frontier?” Nowaki nodded  
“We’ll be safe here.” He looked around quickly, before opening the door. Inside the bar was about as clean and classy as expected, but it was empty, which helped Hiroki relax a little.  
“Wait here a second, we have to find the boundary.” Hiroki was confused, but not for very long. Nowaki picked up a salt shaker off the table nearest and rolled it along the floor. For about 2 metres it rolled normally. Then suddenly it disappeared. The wall glitched and then fixed itself. “That’s the edge, don’t go near that wall or I’ll lose you.” He sat in a booth and looked expectantly at Hiroki “sit down. We’ve got some things to talk about.” Hiroki nodded and joined Nowaki at the table.

“Are you hungry?” Hiroki almost said “no” but then his stomach rumbled, betraying him. Nowaki called out into the seemingly empty café. Surprisingly a woman popped up form behind the bar and took their orders. Not long after their food arrived. Nowaki began to eat quickly, but Hiroki looked at it suspiciously. Nowaki, sensing his apprehension, spoke up  
“Don’t worry, it’s real.” Hiroki frowned, either way it was weird. Once they had both finished their food, the black haired man sighed and ran a hand through his hair  
“I do owe you an explanation. Go ahead, ask me anything.”  
“Why was I fighting Nazi zombies?” Nowaki smiled, he had expected that one  
“Because you were inside the first person shooter ‘Operation Black Hawk: World War Z’.” Hiroki blinked, surprised at how easily the other man admitted they were trapped inside a virtual reality  
“How did you travel here?”  
“That’s a little trickier. To understand there are two things I need to establish. Let me ask you a question; what game was on the screen?” Hiroki was taken aback, how did he know about that? He answered anyway, desperate for answers  
“Marukawa Knights, the Quest.”  
“Sounds like a fantasy game to me. Something like Lord of the Rings. Did that map look anything like the shire to you?” Hiroki shook his head “Well then it’s certain. You glitched.”  
“I what?”  
“When you started playing the game instead of going where you were supposed to, you accidentally got caught up in the game matrix and were sent somewhere random. You’re lucky I was passing through; you might have been stuck there for a while.”  
“But how did we end up here?”  
“Like I said, it’s a map. ‘Operation Black Hawk: World War Z’ was never released because of some other game with a similar concept, but the data and the partially completed map were still on the system. So you were dropped into, what I would call, the dumpster of the game reality.”  
“So we… ran off the the edge?” Nowaki looked pleased  
“Yes, that’s exactly it! If you glitch in to one map, you can glitch to any map on the system. If you enter normally, you have to complete the game before you can glitch anywhere. So basically you have a head start.” Hiroki frowned  
“A head start on what?”  
“Getting the hell out of here.” Hiroki felt an immense weight on his shoulders. Now he had to escape? He picked up his beer and took a long swig. It was going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may seem strange, but I have a plan dw ;)


	5. Side Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's bit short but I really just wanted to update this since it's been so long!

Misaki was a boss ass bitch if he did say so himself. Resigned to his fate of being trapped in a game, he had decided to give it his all. Everyday he completed even the most mundane missions in an attempt to level up his XP. At first he’d had to deliver letters to people in return for gold coins, then once he’d earned enough gold coins he could buy things (go figure). He had thought long and hard about what to spend his first 15 Bronze coins on. As he walked around the market he eyed up the weapons shops hopefully, but he soon found out that he’d need at least silver to buy anything in there. Clothes were also expensive and because he was a Knight in training (apparently?) he really had no need for fancy things. One particularly hot day he was hiding out in the alcove of a nondescript building in the west district, when the chimes of the door behind him opening and shutting caught his attention. The store front was pretty dull at first glance, but when Misaki got a closer look he found the displays were full of wood carvings. Particularly bear wood carvings. He gaped. They were just like the ones his brother sent him from Osaka! Ignoring the options bar for the first time ever, he pushed the door open and walked into the shop. A light blue square above the head of the worker told him that the shop owner was ‘Suumi, Wood carvers apprentice Level” he gasped  
“Level 437?” he hadn’t realised he had spoken aloud until he heard the man behind the counter chuckle. Embarrassed he began to apologise, but the blonde waved his hand dismissing the action  
“Don’t worry I get that a lot. I’m very good with a carving knife haha!” Misaki gaped  
“And you’re still only an apprentice? Wow your master must have some pretty high standards…” Suumi smiled, eyes twinkling  
“Oh my master is also very skilled. I only hope to prove myself to him somehow.” Misaki smiled politely, to his left an options bar caught his eye

Browse items/ Sell items/ interrogate apprentice

“I’d like it if you didn’t feel the need to interrogate me.” Suumi mentioned as Misaki looked over the options  
“Of course not!” Misaki began to browse, eyes settling on a small carving, of a brown bear catching two salmon. His eyes lit up “It’s just like the one from Osaka…” The man behind the counter looked over at him curiously. “How much is this one?”  
“20 bronze coins. It’s a bargain.” Misaki felt his heart sink  
“I only have 15…” Suumi put his hand to his chin, clearly thinking of something.  
“Well then how about you do something for me, a mission? You can take 5 bronze coins as your payment and then buy the statue.” Misaki nodded eagerly. He watched as a small golden side-quest box appeared

“The mission is simple” Suumi began “Deliver this 3 salmon bear wood carving to the palace and give it to one of the guards there, it was a present from the king to my master but, as you can see, he does not have a need for such things.”

Misaki accepted the mission, taking the larger carving from him and tucking it under his arm. He lifted his hand in a mock salute  
“You can count on me, Suumi-san! I’m the most reliable Level 7 knight in the garrison!” He began to walk away when Suumi called after him  
“You may be levelling up, but you’re still a rookie, don’t get yourself into a situation you can’t handle.” Misaki thanked him for the warning and set off for the castle. What a nice guy! Misaki sighed, basking in the heat after the cool interior of the shop. Maybe life here wasn’t so bad after all?

He had stopped accidentally bumping into things 2 months ago, and he had even started to level up, albeit slower than his fellow rookies. The only other rookie he really spoke to, Mizuki, had levelled up so high that he’d already been moved out of his barracks into the private’s rooms on the first level of the castle hill. They hadn’t seen much of each other since then, and Misaki wasn’t honestly sure if he wanted to… Mizuki didn’t seem to like him all that much. Even if he had wanted to, he probably wouldn’t be a welcome visitor. Besides that, the hill was so steep! He dreaded the thought of having to climb all the way to the top to deliver the bear, but he pushed that form his mind. For now, he was happy just walking along in the sun.

Boom.

Misaki flew backwards, bear carving going flying. He landed hard on his back, his vision blurring from pain and smoke from whatever had just exploded in front of him. He felt blood begin to trickle from a wound on his leg. That wasn’t good. He pulled himself painfully to his feet and looked up at his health bar. His eyes widened. His fall may have hurt, but somehow it was completely intact. He knelt down and rolled up his trousers to reveal, nothing. The blood stain was there, but there was not even a break in the skin. Shocked, he looked around for the bear carving. He found it lying not too far form where he fell, thankfully intact. Again, ignoring the options bar, despite it turning a strange shade of red. Misaki simply walked over to pick up the item. He never made it that far however. His path was blocked instead by a row of tall horses. He looked up. He recognised the face of Haruhiko, his trainer immediately, along with some others from the training facility. But he didn’t awkwardly smile, or say anything like he usually would. He couldn’t in fact do anything, as every single one of them had a sword pointing at his throat. Cautiously his eyes drifted up to his options bar.

Be arrested/ Kill self

Well shit.

…

Akihiko watched the brunette being dragged away and wondered in the back of his mind whether he could have handled that slightly better. It hadn’t been his intention to get Misaki caught up in his plans, but when he had heard the boy mention Osaka, he knew he had to contact him somehow. 

The lightning bolt he had sent down contained to strands of magic, the first was a protection spell. If Misaki got hurt, his only lead in decades was gone, that and he had a soft spot for the short man. The second was a messenger spell. The small 2 salmon bear carving was safely tucked in Misaki’s shirt, with it’s owner completely ignorant of the code inscribed on the back. In a language only a select few would recognise. He looked away from his portal and leant back in his chair. He had a plan, now with the help of his handsome and clumsy hero, it could finally begin.


	6. Joint Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shinobu dabbles with fate.

Shinobu was escorted through a back passage. The air was thick with the smell of perfumes and sweat, but after 3 months in the brothel, he was used to the scent. He rolled his eyes. Only whores needed to have sex to get information, he was talented enough with his words (and his hands) that it usually took very little to get what he needed from the gross men who came to the brothel.

A glowing arrow pointed him into one of the entertainment rooms where he was told to wait whilst the NPC went to fetch the guests. As Shinobu lay back lazily on the plush velvet pillows, torso exposed beneath his ornate waistcoat in a way he knew looked suggestive enough to make men squirm, but casual enough to feel comfortable, he wondered whether he’d settled into his role a little too well?

He had levelled up quick, despite his protests against the rigorous training his ‘sister’ had put him through. When he opened the door he was immediately greeted by a tall black haired woman. According to her stats he name was Beka and she was a level 20 Adult entertainer. Shinobu had immediately stormed out, refusing to have ‘adult entertainer’ glowing above his head everywhere he went. When he finally calmed down he forced himself back inside. The woman acted as though nothing had happened and re-introduced herself.

Ask for a show/ Ask to be her apprentice / Seduce

Reluctantly he asked to be her apprentice, watching as the central option glowed green. Shinobu remembered how embarrassed he had been when he first walked through the brothel, unable to hide his blush as he passed the occupied rooms.  
“They don’t have to be so loud. No one’s that good.” At this Beka turned around smiling  
“It’s all part of the performance, Shinobu. Take this for example” She stopped in front of an open door. Shinobu looked in, assuming it was empty. He yelled out in surprise, shielding his eyes at what he found inside  
“Oh my god what is-? OH SHIT HOW DID SHE DO THAT? WHY IS IT THAT COLOUR? HE ACTUALLY LIKES THAT?” Shinobu could have gone on with his verbal assault of what had to be the kinkiest shit he had ever seen and never wanted to see again. Instead he was stopped by the feeling of Beka pulling him away and laughing  
“Actually he does like that, he also has a kink for exhibitionism and shocking people, which is why we keep the door open for him. You just made his visit a whole lot more pleasurable.” Shinobu wanted to vomit but he had a feeling that would only make his nausea worse. He was in way over his head…

They settled down in a backroom away from all the noises and other things. He shuddered at the thought. Beka watched him thoughtfully as he took in his surroundings nervously  
“You’re a virgin aren’t you?”  
“WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY HAG?” She chuckled as Shinobu blushed beetroot red and threw a mini tantrum. When he was done she continued  
“Shinobu I’m just trying to get an idea of what I need to teach you, but I suppose we’ll have to start from the basics.” She leant over the table and pulled him forward by the collar of his shirt, her lips so close they were almost on his. Shinobu blushed averting his eyes from the robe which had slipped slightly to reveal one of her breasts. She hovered there for a moment before smiling and releasing him “and you’re gay.” Shinobu would have murdered her, but unfortunately that was not one of the options the game offered him. Instead he decided to sit there in an angry silence until this embarrassment was over. She sat back down in her seat and took a sip of tea, apparently her assessment was complete.  
“Shinobu I will take you on as my apprentice, because I think you have determination, that’s something we don’t see a lot around here. It will be hard work, but I know you can complete whatever it is you’ve set out to do.” She shot him a knowing look. Shinobu’s eyes widened, how much did she know? “We will start training tonight.” She stood and Shinobu did the same, but she waved him down “rest, this will be your room for now, sorry it’s a bit small.” She was about to leave before she looked back and added “And Shinobu, this is a secret, but there are ways to do our job without sex.”

Shinobu had taken comfort in her words and she had stuck by them. Even now, 3 months later he was still ‘innocent’ as the other girls called him. He frowned, if you counted all the other things he’d done in the mean time, he was anything but that. He stretched his arms above his head and let out a satisfied groan at the feeling. He ran his hands through his hair, playing with one if the little beads woven into it. He was so good at this, maybe he should work at a host club once he got back to the real world? The door clicked open and Beka walked in, leading two tall dark haired men behind her. She winked at him before leaving him to his work  
“Fuck he is something else.” The older man said, he was clearly the customer this time around. Shinobu quickly looked him over, he wasn’t hideously over weight at least but he kind of reminded him of his old maths teacher who left the school suddenly a couple of years back. He ignored the thought, stretching his arms up above his head mimicking the moves and sounds he’d made a moment ago, then rolled on to his front.  
“Pleasure to meet you, sir.” He smiled impishly and extended a hand, the man kissed it hungrily, eyes never leaving his. He shuddered inwardly  
“My name is Johann, pleasure to meet you, Shinobu”  
The man didn’t bother introducing his guard who stood behind him still as a statue. Perhaps sensing Shinobu’s curious eyes, Johann regained his attention with a quick cough. Eyes darting back to the man, Shinobu smiled and lifted himself from his spot on the floor, moving so he was straddling the man’s hips. He snaked his legs around his waist and let his hands tug slightly at the thick uniform he was wearing.  
“This is no fun.” He whined as he continued to play with the hems of the mans clothes. Internally, as usual, he was coming up with different ways he could kill the man beneath him. It was his comfort. When he felt the man begin to move his hands up and down his sides, he sighed, knowing exactly how this was going to go. Johann was one of those guys who got a kink out of being fully clothed in front of naked people.

He rolled his eyes as he pulled off his vest. As his eyes moved around the room, they made brief contact with the guard by the door. He almost yelled out in surprise. It was Miyagi. Johann must have noticed his sudden hesitation as he chuckled and pulled Shinobu close to him, kissing his neck  
“So excited you could barely move ey? Let me satisfy you.” Shinobu, still in shock, did not look away from Miyagi, even when he felt the other man take one of his nipples in between his teeth. He moaned automatically, the fake moan he always used when clients did stuff like this. Shinobu could have sworn he saw Miyagi blush at the sound. Interesting. He moaned again, not really caring what the other guy was doing at this point. He was just curious to see Miyagi’s reaction. He shot daggers at Shinobu from his place by the door, but he couldn’t hide his red face. Shinobu smirked. Very interesting. The sudden feeling of the man rubbing his crotch finally tore his attention away from Miyagi. Time for part two of his game.  
“Let me satisfy you now.” Shinobu insisted, as usual he was met with no resistance. In fact, Johann threw himself back on the sheets  
“Ravish me.” Shinobu cringed. He could have sworn Miyagi did the same. He crawled over the mans form, kissing him fiercely. Whilst he was distracted, Shinobu pulled the bead from his hair, slipping it between his lips. Slowly but surely the mans pace slowed down until he stopped having passed out completely. Slowly Shinobu pulled himself off the man, then leant back to his original spot on the pillows. An options bar appeared above his client’s body

Loot/ Kill/ Move

He frowned. He didn’t really feel like doing any of those things. He looked over to Miyagi who was no longer at his post by the door. Instead he was standing over Shinobu with his sword drawn.

Seduce/ Scream/ Reveal secrets

“What have you done?” He said seriously. Shinobu’s frown turned into a scowl  
“It’s destiny.” The mans glare faltered  
“W-what?” Shinobu let his fingers trail over his taught stomach and play with his belly button  
“Destiny has brought us together, Miyagi.”  
“That doesn’t explain why you knocked out my boss.” Shinobu frowned  
“Oh him… I need a letter he’s carrying.”  
“You want to steal confidential information from him.” Shinobu nodded  
“Yes and I want you to help me do it.” He replied, smirking “now can you put that sword down so we can talk properly.” Hesitantly, Miyagi lowered his sword, knowing he could overpower Shinobu at any point. First things first, he opened the door which led to the bedroom and dragged Johann in there, slamming the door behind him. When he returned he walked over to Miyagi  
“Thank you for waiting.” Shinobu purred before throwing himself into the older man’s lap. He had just gotten comfortable when Miyagi stood up and pushed him off  
“Woah woah no way Kiddo. You’re too young for me.” Shinobu let out a huff of displeasure. Before leaning up on his knees and reaching for Miyagi again. Without realising the man had walked himself right into a corner allowing Shinobu to trap him. He wrapped his arms around the guard’s knees and, in a surprising show of strength, pulled him to the ground. Shinobu leant over the man, looking deeply into his eyes, as though searching for something there. He rolled his hips slowly, grinding himself down on the man’s crotch  
“You liked it before.” He said, voice thick with desire “and it seems like you like it now…” he said as he felt Miyagi’s cock growing hard in his crotch. He was about to dive in to claim the older man’s lips, when he felt his body slam into the ground. He gasped as the wind was knocked from his lungs. Miyagi was on top of him with a dagger at his throat  
“I’m not just going to have sex with you as though my boss isn’t drugged and unconscious in the room next door.” Shinobu suddenly saw the options bar return, glowing hazily above Miyagi’s head.

Scream/ Reveal Secrets

Looked like he wasn’t getting lucky today. He still refused to consider scream a legitimate option. Instead he moved his arm and reached behind him. Miyagi watched him, scrutinising his every move to make sure he wasn’t trying anything funny. Shinobu pulled out a letter, the seal was intact.  
“Read it. If you aren’t satisfied, kill me.” Tentatively and without moving the dagger an inch, Miyagi took the letter from him.  
Shinobu waited with baited breath for Miyagi’s reaction. He read it once, lowered his arm and opened his mouth as if to say something, then read it again. Only after he’d looked it over 3 times did he finally release Shinobu.

“If what this letter says is true, then the king murdered the old royal family and has no real claim to the throne.” Shinobu nodded  
“And that means…” He prompted Miyagi  
“… we need to do something about it.” Shinobu’s grin grew into an elated smile. He knew Miyagi wouldn’t let him down. Above his head a golden box appeared

New quest path unlocked: Accept/ Decline

His eyes widened. Miyagi looked up too, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.  
“I don’t know if you’re seeing what I’m seeing, but it looks like I’ve just been offered a quest with you.” Shinobu gaped. So Miyagi could get quests? Did that mean he was from the real world too? His heart suddenly started racing. Should he ask him? He decided not to. They had only just gotten on the same page, he didn’t want Miyagi thinking he was insane and running off. All he could do was figure it out for himself… somehow.  
“Will you accept?” He asked, surprised at the nervous tone in his voice. Miyagi looked at Shinobu, something like curiosity in his eyes  
“I suppose someone has to make sure you don't kill yourself, brat.” Shinobu flung himself at Miyagi, pulling him into a tight hug despite his protests. He felt like home was closer than ever.  
“Hey you’re still too young for me. Don’t get any ideas.” Shinobu frowned but he wasn’t upset, not really. They got up from the floor and looked ahead as an options bar appeared

Interrogate hostage/ reveal secrets to Beka/ Have victory sex

“I’m assuming you can see that too.”  
“Yep.”  
“I told you it was fate, even the game wants it.”


	7. Main Menu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiroki, surprisingly, is not happy when wearing spandex.

Hiroki was beyond unimpressed.  
“Just do it.” Nowaki said firmly as they stood by a large racing track  
“No.” Hiroki fumed. His aura darkening.  
“You have to.” Nowaki sounded annoyed  
“I’m not taking orders from some airhead who got himself stuck in a game.”  
“You’re here too, Hiro-san.” He tried to bite back but Hiroki couldn’t argue with that.

How on earth had Nowaki convinced him that this was a good idea? After their conversation at The Frontier bar in Grand Theft Auto, Nowaki had told him his plan. He explained that to travel to different maps all they had to do was run off the edge of one game and they’d materialise in the next. But because there were so many games in the database, simply walking through the games took far too long. He looked into Hiroki’s eyes with an expression he imagined soldiers had when they remembered war.  
“It took me a year, a whole year Hiro-san, to walk from Portal 1 to Portal 2.” He shook his head to snap out of his flashback. Hiroki was certain there was some long term mental trauma there and made a mental note to never talk about Portal again “I was determined never suffer like that again. So I started looking for short cuts. I found a couple but they never took me anywhere useful. Then, about 9 months ago I found a glitch which led me to ‘F1 2015’. I had planned on killing myself” Hiroki gasped but Nowaki ignored him “So I got in a car and just drove off the edge of the map, assuming I’d crash. But somehow I came out the other side. And not only that I found myself outside of the game matrix. In the main menu, from there I could access any game.” Hiroki gasped  
“But how?”  
“We can’t glitch in and out of games with anything which comes from the game, that’s why our clothes change depending on the reality we’re in. Also we can only travel as far as our human speed can carry us, that usually means only one or two games at a time. But if we’re going fast enough we can drive the car off the edge and throw ourselves into the main menu.” Nowaki had explained this as he led Hiroki out of the bar and down a back alley. He walked up to a dumpster with a panda painted on the side  
“Look for anything with a panda on the side. That’s how I keep track of where the entrances are.” He pulled open the lid and swung his legs into the bin, so he was sitting on the edge. Held out a hand  
“Care to join me, Hiro-san?” Hiroki frowned as he blushed, taking the black haired man’s hand and sitting next to him. “When we get into the game, we’ll randomly be assigned characters, we have to complete one round at least before we regain any autonomy so just roll with it.” He nodded, then looked at the contents of the dumpster in disgust  
“It looks like we’re about to jump in to a load of garbage.”  
“You’ll just have to trust me.” And to his own surprise, Hiroki realised that he did.

Now he was standing on The Formula One track from this years Grand Prix, wearing nothing but a tight latex mini dress and holding a black and white flag whilst Nowaki was sitting behind the wheel of a Ferrari. Trust this shitty reality to make him the racing model.  
“You look really cute Hiro-san!” He cried from the window. Hiroki was tempted to throw the flag at him but he knew that was no way to get this over with. He lifted the flag above his head and swung it down shouting  
“JUST FUCKING GO.”

The cars sped around the track, the NPC easily overtaking Nowaki in the first lap. Hiroki caught himself almost smiling when Nowaki regained the lead in the second lap. Hiroki did as Nowaki had instructed and whilst the race was at it’s peak, he ran up to the control room and pushed one of the other drivers out of the way of the stats panels.  
“Woah calm down Demon.” The teenager said. Hiroki shot the red head a glare, daring him to try that shit again. The boy cowered. His eyes sought out Nowaki’s car on the league tables and found that at his fastest he travelled at over 160 MPH. He gulped  
“I wonder if I should tell him I get car sick..?”

When the cars screeched to a halt Hiroki went back down to the track and relayed all this info to Nowaki. He nodded.  
“It’s a good thing I won then, we can use my victory lap to build up speed then just-”  
“Drive off the edge of the world?” Nowaki nodded, smiling  
“Sounds about right, Hiro-san.” He turned quickly, Hiroki surprised at his swift exit, followed him out  
“Oi Nowaki.”  
“Yeah?” He called back  
“Where the hell did Hiro-san come from?” Nowaki stopped, clearly surprised by his question. Nowaki’s feature softened in to a rare smile. Since they’d met, the tall man had been icy and practical, but Hiroki couldn’t help but feel like he was changing.  
“You know; I’ve been alone a long time. Sure there were NPCs but their company felt so… artificial. Since you came here, I kind of realized that I’ve forgotten who I really was. I reverted to my basic survival instincts, that’s why I kissed you in Grand Theft Auto, that’s why I spoke so coldly to you. That’s not who I really am…” He looked away from Hiroki. He was surprised at the honest answer, but it still didn’t answer his question  
“So why that name?” He could see Nowaki blush a little  
“It makes me feel close to you, Hiro-san. It reminds me I’m not alone.”  
Shit. Hiroki was blushing. His heart was beating a little too fast. He was still wearing the ridiculous spandex which revealed far too much of his figure. No way he did not have a crush on this guy. Apparently sensing the growing awkwardness between them, Nowaki began walking again.  
“Let’s do this.” His serious tone returning. As much as Hiroki liked this reliable side of his companion, he found himself hoping the honest side would show its face a little more…

“Brace yourself when we hit the wall. It won’t be easy but the car should glitch out just in time for us to fly through without much of a problem.” Hiroki nodded, trying not to be worried about the ‘should’ in that sentence. “And Hiro-san, whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.” Before he had the chance to shout angrily at the younger man, Nowaki revved the engine loudly and sped off down the track. They built up speed fast, Hiroki clenched the seat and Nowaki’s hand tightly. They zoomed around the track, taking each corner sharply to keep their speed as high as possible. Then when the finish line came into view, instead of slowing down, Nowaki accelerated.

They sped past the stands and the podium, out of sight of the NPCs and towards the wall of the tracks. Despite knowing that they were in a game, for all intensive purposes it looked as though they were about to turn themselves into pancakes on the concrete wall rapidly approaching them. Hiroki closed his eyes tight, braced for impact and almost crushing Nowaki’s hand. But none came. When he forced his eyes open, they were speeding through the game matrix. He looked down and saw that he was back in his teaching clothes. Nowaki, to his surprise, was wearing what looked like a doctor’s uniform. He had no time to register much more, as the black haired man pulled him against his chest.  
“Hiro-san look at the matrix now.” Hiroki’s eyes observed the air around them, which was now bright blue. The binary had been replaced by logos, woven into the pixelated walls of the main menu. “Now we just have to aim for Sims 3.” Hiroki was tired of being confused. He just let Nowaki angle their bodies through the space and through a portal of sorts. They glitched in space for a moment, and Hiroki felt Nowaki suck in a sharp breath. They landed with a hard thud, but Nowaki stood immediately, pulling a winded Hiroki with him.  
“Oh no.”  
“What?” He asked, ignoring the throbbing in his head  
“Hiro-san don’t get angry, but I slightly misjudged this.”  
“What do you mean?” He looked around. It didn’t look much like Sims 3. They were in what appeared to be a tall rectangular cage of blue lines. Other than that there wasn’t much to look at, only darkness. Nowaki looked up at the sky, if you could call it that. There was a bright blue square, high above their heads. If he squinted, he could just see the Sims logo shining through it.  
“At the top of this game is the passage which will take us into Sims 3.”  
“Great, what’s the problem?” Suddenly a huge bright red shape began to fall, quickly from the sky. Nowaki grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the way just as it slammed into the ground where they had once been standing. He turned to Hiroki and for the first time he looked absolutely terrified  
“This is Tetris.”

The game had been designed to increase in difficulty as the player completed each level. The only problem was that once they’d finished development the game developers realised they’d messed up the order, meaning the first level was the hardest. This meant that the pieces, which would usually have descended slowly, were instead crashing down to the ground at break neck speed. They barely had a second in between dodging falling shapes, to communicate some kind of plan. As a long blue rectangle fell, filling the final space on the bottom layer of the grid, Hiroki pulled Nowaki up onto one of blocks. Suddenly a light bulb went off in his head  
“Nowaki! I have an idea!” He yelled as they rolled out of the way of a yellow cube. “We’ll climb up the pieces, then glitch out at the top.” Nowaki gaped at him  
“We’ll exhaust ourselves before we get there.” As if the game was trying to prove his point, the bolted and leapt, only just making it on to the top of an L shaped green piece before another long piece came crashing down.  
“I trusted you Nowaki.” He said, trying not to let his tiredness show in his voice “Trust me.” It was Hiroki’s turn to take Nowaki’s hand and pull him away from the danger. He immediately looked away from the younger man, but if he’d kept eye contact a little longer he might just have seen the spark ignite in his stormy eyes.

It didn’t get easier. They jumped, rolled and ran all over the place, almost getting trapped in a gap more than once. Both men were exhausted, but they were close to the top now, they wouldn’t give up.  
“This way!” Nowaki pulled Hiroki too hard and too suddenly. He fell. His face hit the ground, he felt blood gushing onto his shirt. “HIRO-SAN, MOVE!” Nowaki cried. Just in time Hiroki rolled away as a piece fell where he had just been lying. He was fine, but with the piece between them, there was no way for him to get to Nowaki.  
“Nowaki just get to the top, I’ll meet you in Sims 3!”  
“I’M NOT GOING WITH OUT YOU.”  
“GO STUPID I’M NOT TRAPPED YET.” To prove his point Hiroki climbed on top of a square and readied himself to jump to the next level. Nowaki, who had fallen on a side with taller pieces, was already at the roof. When a line was filled they would be lowered down one space. Even if Nowaki waited for him he would never catch up. He glared at the black haired man, trying to communicate all of this in to his expression. Nowaki looked up, reaching  
“I’ll wait for you there!” He jumped just as another piece completed the line. He disappeared into the matrix and Hiroki was alone. He had no time to worry however, as Tetris blocks were falling as fast as ever. He jumped over a purple cross and onto a red square. He was almost there, but not having the benefit of Nowaki’s unbelievable height, he had to get higher. The next piece coming was heading right for the space next to him. It was tall enough to give him a way out, but the moment it fell he knew it would make the blocks drop a level. He had to time it perfectly. As it careered down the grid, before it had even landed, for the second time that day he found himself closing his eyes and clenching his hands in anticipation. Only now, with no Nowaki to hold onto, he felt inexplicably lonely. He launched himself, despite his feelings. The moment he felt his feet make contact with the surface of the piece, he pushed off. He reached up. He wasn't going to make it. Damn it. He stretched. His finger tips, just, brushed the edge of the map.

He was suddenly pulled back into the matrix before he materialised outside a house covered in flowers, and a nervously pacing Nowaki.  
“Hiro-san!” He fell to his knees next to him and pulled the brunette into a tight hug “You’re okay.” Hiroki was NOT blushing. He wasn’t. He was just… flushed. From all the running. There was no way this guy was making him blush, or feel like there were butterflies in his stomach or like his heart was racing a mile a minute. NO. WAY.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a lot of fun with this, maybe too much fun :')
> 
> That bit at the end was just crack please ignore me whilst I show myself out.


	8. Game Play Options: Story Mode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misaki meets the King and finally learns what the hell is going on.
> 
> Warning for some mild violence in this chapter! If that's not your thing skip from “Looks like witchcraft if you ask me..." to "When the guards came back..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so this is a bit of a transition chapter, it's not my fave but I have some great suff planned for the next few chapters~~

Misaki was thrown in the dungeon. It was dark, dirty and there was a smell of decay which was apparently inescapable. Speaking of inescapable, Misaki had tried to no avail to break down the bars of the cell (which was surprisingly one of the options the game gave him) but it never worked, his level wasn’t high enough yet. After the third failed attempt, guards came to stop him and now he was constantly being watched. He yelled at them, a lot, but he gave up after a while. It was pointless. If escape wasn’t an option now, he would just have to wait and see where this quest took him.

He collapsed on to a bed (which was more like a plank of wood) in the corner of the cell and drew his knees up to his chest. How had this happened? All he wanted was a 2 salmon bear wood carving? The carving! They had taken everything from his inventory when he arrived in the castle, but they hadn’t noticed the carving in his pocket yet. He pulled it out. The ends of the salmon were sharp, maybe he could use them to pick the lock on the door? An options bar appeared, he snuck a look at the guards before looking up at it. Although they couldn’t see the options, they would be able to see him reading and know he was planning something.

Pick lock/ attempt to break bars/ examine object

He couldn’t pick the lock yet because the guards were still watching and if he tried to break the bars again he knew they’d only get angry. The game wanted him to do something though, he sighed and examined the object in his hand. It was small and light, made of wood which had been carved smooth. He turned it over in his hands, to look at the base f the object. He had to strangle his gasp. On the bottom there was a word printed, clumsily, in kanji.

大阪

“Osaka? But how…” Misaki muttered. The guard looked over at him suspiciously. Misaki jumped, hiding the carving in his sleeve. He held his breath, waiting for the guard to turn around before looking at it again. Osaka? No one knows about the real world in here, so no one could possibly know about Japan? Unless he was from the real world? Misaki stared wide eyed at the characters. The letters only appeared after that lightning struck, he was pretty sure of that. Was someone trying to send him a message? He had to find out, maybe this person could help him get back to reality. He snuck another look at the guards, before picking up a sharp stone from the ground then carved into the base

“Who are you?”

He had just finished carving the words when there was a bang from the other side of the bars.  
“What’s he doing?”  
“He’s got something! Oi hand it over!” The guards unlocked the door, cornering him at the edge of the cell. The bald one grabbed the bear carving. Crap! He reached out for it, but the man shoved him back against the wall with his foot. He kept it there, pressed hard on his chest, so that Misaki could hardly move.  
“What is this?”  
“It looks like some shit to me.” The other guard laughed, taking it from the others hands and flipping it over. Misaki tensed, there was no way they wouldn’t see it now. The guard frowned and looked at the words scratched on the bottom  
“What the hell is that?”  
“Looks like witchcraft if you ask me. You a witch kid?” The bald man leant forward until their faces were inches apart, he was sneering. He pressed harder on his chest. He gasped for air as he felt his lungs being more and more constricted. He was going to suffocate. Without thinking he tossed his head forward and connected with the bald guard nose. He heard a sickening crack and a yell and then felt the foot release from his chest. He gasped, drinking in the oxygen. His relief only lasted a few seconds however, as the man quickly recovered. He rounded on him growling like a feral animal. “You bastard. You know, I’ve always wanted to beat up a witch.” He smirked evilly、the blood running down his face only made him look more menacing. The other guard grabbed him, holding him up so he couldn’t get away. Misaki braced as he saw the bald guard prepare to swing. He felt the punch hit his gut, but other than being slightly short of breath, he felt nothing. He opened his eyes. The other guy looked just as perplexed as he was. His eyes wandered to his health bar. It hadn’t dropped, not even a little. The guard struck again. Nothing. He could see him becoming more and more frustrated. After a while he stopped and growled  
“Fine fuck it.” He pulled out his sword and before Misaki could even scream, he swung it down, slashing it across his chest. He felt hot blood oozing from his torn flesh. The guard released his arms and he collapsed to the ground. He clutched at his heart gasping and writhing in pain. They laughed  
“Looks like he had an accident.” They sneered as they left him alone in the cell and walked out of the dungeons, presumably to go tell their other masochistic friends about the beating they’d just given him. When Misaki was sure they’d gone, he stopped writhing in the floor and stood. He looked at his chest. The wound was gone. He smirked.

When the guards came back, accompanied with many more this time, Misaki took a moment to appreciate the looks of horror on their faces as he stood, apparently unscathed in the middle of the cell. They kept their distance as Misaki was handcuffed and escorted out of the cell. As he was led away from the dungeons and climbed to the higher levels of the palace, the walls became cleaner and the awful smells died away. It looked very much like the soldier’s barracks in the training grounds. Once they reached what he assumed was the level just beneath the ground floor, he was led through a plain wooden door and all of a sudden he was standing in the atrium of the palace. He couldn’t hold back his gasp. The room was massive, with a tall domed ceiling, criss-crossed with white arches which were carved ornately with some kind of animal. There were stained glass windows all around the walls, reflecting off of the white marble and casting blue and purple lights all over the room. Misaki hadn’t noticed that he’d stopped moving until he felt a guard shove him forward. He stumbled, but quickly regained his balance.

A few minutes later he was standing outside a set of tall oak doors. Misaki couldn't shake the feeling that there was something menacing standing behind them. It might have been Misaki’s imagination, but the guards even seemed a little tense. The bald guard who’d assaulted him even tried to wipe the blood from his chin as though he wanted to blend in as much as possible. It made Misaki nervous. A loud voice bellowed “Enter!” so loud it could be heard through the thick wood. Two guards pulled the door open, revealing a hall designed similarly to the atrium, with the same stain glass windows and high vaulted ceilings, only it was long and narrow. At the end of the room furthest from the door, on the top of a high platform was a magnificent black thrown. It was shiny and glistening as though it was made from diamonds. It certainly did not suit the person sitting in it. The man in the throne was old, late 50’s, with ashy black hair and pale skin. He was neither handsome nor ugly, did not look particularly weak or strong. In physical appearance, Misaki felt like he was just some random he could have passed on the subway on his way to school. Unremarkable aside from the crown on his head. Misaki was placed at the foot of the platform, so that the king could look down at him. He watched the guards retreat into the crowds of silent bystanders whom he hadn’t even noticed before now. He gulped. Why was there an audience just for him?

His attention was drawn back to the front of the room as the king stood. Misaki had to crane his head even higher to look him in the eyes now. Somehow he thought that this was intentional.  
“Welcome, Misaki Takahashi, to my palace.” An options bar appeared

Grovel/ Beg

This fucking game. The King smirked, apparently aware of Misaki’s inner turmoil “my name is Fuyuhiko Usami, and this is my kingdom. It is my job to keep my kingdom safe for my son, so that one day he can take over and carry on the legacy which I have begun.” The king smiled and nodded to the side where Haruhiko was standing. Misaki made eye contact with the man but quickly looked away. “But there is something stopping me from doing this. Or should I say, someone. Do you know who I’m talking about?” Misaki shook his head  
“No…” There were mutters around the room. The brunette gulped, was he missing something. The king just laughed and began to descend the stairs at the front of his platform. As he approached, Misaki felt himself tensing up involuntarily. He was definitely missing something.  
“The Dark Lord Akihiko has been plaguing our land for the last decade. First it was seemingly random things; he started off by kidnapping all of the bears in the kingdom. As you know bears ae our representative animal, so it was more of an insult than anything.” Misaki nodded slowly, he’d actually had no idea about the bears, but to be honest it didn’t really seem like a big deal. “Then he burnt our fields to the ground and he send in his bear armies to attack anyone who tries to hunt him. It’s truly terrible.” Misaki gulped. Bear armies? What did any of this have to do with him? Fuyuhiko seemed to read his mind just then. “We’ve tried to make peace, I even sent him a 4 salmon bear wood caving. But it appears he sent a messenger to reject my offer.” Fuyuhiko reached the bottom of the stairs and smiled at Misaki. There was no warmth in the expression. “He sent you, Takahashi-kun.” Misaki jumped away from the king  
“I-I’m not a messenger for anyone! I’m just a rookie Knight! I’m nothing.”  
“Ah but Takahashi-kun I beg to differ. You have the Dark Lord’s protection.” Misaki gaped  
“I don’t understand…”  
“You haven’t been able to get injured since he sent that bolt of lightning to you. For some reason, he has set you apart. You’re special to him Takahashi-kun.” Misaki shook his head vigorously  
“That’s impossible. I’ve ever even met him you have to believe me!” Fuyuhiko sighed  
“I’m afraid I can’t believe you. You appear in the middle of the town, seemingly from nowhere, carrying the very bear I’d sent to the dark lord and even bringing a message from him.” The king motioned one of the guards forward. The man knelt down and presented the small bear carving with the writing there for everyone to see. Fuyuhiko smirked  
“So you’re telling me that this isn’t a code? A communication between yourself and the dark lord.” Misaki opened his mouth to deny it but he hesitated. What good was it going to do? There was no way this man would believe him! He had to think of something quick. He wracked his brain. He wanted to leave the game, the only way to do that was to get through each trial one step at a time, whilst completing his main quest. He suddenly remembered his quest:

A Dark Lord hides away in his hidden kingdom kidnapping people and bringing war to our kingdom. Only one Knight can save us all from these dark forces. This person is you.

Misaki gulped. He only had one option.  
“I’ll prove it. I’ll prove I’m not on his side.” Misaki said with fake confidence. The king looked taken a back at first but then his smile returned. He was clearly interested. His silence prompted Misaki to continue “I will find the Dark Lord, fight him and bring him to justice. Just let me prove myself.” Let me prove myself so that I can escape from this game, he continued in his head.

A heave silence fell over the room. The gathered attendees, the guards even the king didn't make a sound. Until, all of a sudden, everyone burst out laughing. The king laughed the loudest, right in Misaki’s face. He felt himself flushing red with embarrassment. They think I’m a joke… he thought miserably. He had to finish his quest and this seemed to be the only way. He couldn’t back down, no matter how much they laughed at him. Through the laughter he heard the king yell  
“Seize him, we’re done here.” Misaki yelled and struggled as Guards began to drag him away from the king. The options bar was pointless, there’s no way I’m groveling now.  
“OI! I CAN DO IT.” He yelled, a mixture of annoyance and desperation tainting his voice. The laughter died down again at his outburst, the guards hesitated unsure if they should continue. All of a sudden the air felt thicker than before. Misaki gulped. Maybe yelling at the king was a step too far. The room waited with baited breath as Fuyuhiko looked down at the man, one eyebrow quirked. He was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time, but then he turned away and began to walk back to his throne.  
“Fine, Takahashi-kun. You have conviction in your voice. I’ll allow you to go to the Dark Lord.” People began to mutter around the room, but the king held up a hand to silence them “I will give you 3 days to complete your quest. If you aren’t back before then, we will come for you. And trust me, we’ll find you.”

 

The guards tossed him out of the front door of the castle, throwing his stuff in a sac next to him.  
“Good luck witch, you’re going to need it.” The bald guard sneered at him. The door slammed as they walked back into the palace and Misaki was alone. He scrambled to his feet, grabbing his bag and ran down the hill, through the barracks and out of the front gate of the castle. He didn’t stop running until he reached the edge of the city, then he collapsed against a wall and gasped his breath back.

“Crap crap crap!” He chanted to himself. What had he done?! How could he possibly defeat a dark lord in 3 days?! He was a rookie knight for god’s sake! He took several deep breaths trying to calm himself down. He had to get moving.  
“Open inventory.” He put his items back into his inventory, carrying them would only slow him down. The only thing he kept out was the small bear carving which, to his surprise, they had returned to him. He turned it over in his hands. There was a reply. But it wasn’t a name.

“The Demons Frontier, See you in 3 days. I’m waiting for you.” Misaki gasped. So the person he was talking to really was the dark lord! His fingers began to tremble. “I’m waiting for you…” he said aloud to himself. Misaki wondered whether there was space for him to write a reply, there was only a small corner untouched, maybe he could fit something in there? Suddenly another message appeared from the dark lord,  
“In my spare time I write BL novels, can I use your name it’s pretty?”  
“WAH!” He yelled “BAKA DON'T WASTE SPACE WITH THIS SHIT.” He threw the bear carving to the ground. “I hope you felt that.” He muttered as the carving made a loud clattering sound on the ground. He stood there awkwardly before realizing he had to pick up the wood again. The carving was blank, all the massages had been wiped away and a new one had taken their place  
“You’re interesting, Misaki.” The brunette gulped. What was this guy playing at? He frowned and put the carving back in his pocket.

He looked around. It was late out and he didn’t want to be outside too long. He’d had enough beatings for one day and he didn’t want to run into anymore over enthusiastic guards. He looked at the glowing signs at the doors of the buildings.

Armory: closed, Merchants Guild: Level 15 merchants and over only, Doctors: Health bar too high.

That only left him with a glowing blue arrow pointing him to the “city center” and a pink sign which said “The Kan Tavern.”  
“THE KAN?!” Misaki gaped at the sign. That was a name he knew all too well. He rushed forward, rapidly selecting “enter” when the options bar appeared. He threw the door open. To his surprise the tavern was relatively empty. There were only a couple of NPCs milling around with side quest icons hovering above their heads. He didn’t have time for that anymore. Misaki approached the bar, his confidence slipping a way slightly. What if it was just a coincidence? He gulped  
“Hello?” Misaki called out tentatively  
“just a second!” Misaki jumped. The voice had come from just behind the bar. A dark haired man was picking something up off of the floor. The man stood up and Misaki’s jaw dropped.  
“IJUUIN KYOU! OH MY GOD I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN.” Misaki gushed at the man. He looked at him perplexed for a minute then something like understanding dawned on him. His eyes darted around the room. He grabbed Misaki’s hand and pulled him behind the bar into a store cupboard.

“How do you know that name?” Ijuuin asked. Misaki began to speak but then his eyes drifted up and read the information above his head, but there was nothing there, just fuzzed out letters. Misaki’s mouth went dry. How could he explain himself now?  
“I-I…”  
“Misaki is it?” the Brunette nodded  
“You’re not from here are you?” Misaki stared at the dark haired man. What should he say? Yes or no? He went with his gut.  
“I’m from the real world.” Ijuuin relaxed his grasp slightly. He heard him release an unsteady breath  
“Okay okay…” He trailed off, backing away from the teenager. He looked at him for a long time before asking “Misaki, how long ago did you arrive here?”  
“Maybe 3 months ago.” he said uncertainly “maybe a little less. Why?”  
“I’ve been trapped here for 10 years. We all have.” Ijuuin replied, Misaki gasped  
“I don’t understand, this is just a video game, why are we stuck here?” Ijuuin leant against the wall, avoiding Misaki’s gaze  
“This is so much more than a Video game, Misaki. It’s an alternate reality.”

Ijuuin closed the tavern, kicking out the NPCs and turning out all the lights except from the fire which cast a warm orange glow on the room. Misaki sat opposite the author in a comfortable armchair. Ijuuin handed him a cup of warm tea and leant back in his seat. He had promised to tell Misaki everything. The brunette was finally looking forward to being able to make sense of this strange reality, but he was also nervous. What was he going to find out? Ijuuin sighed, setting down his tea.

“I suppose I should start from the beginning. Years ago or so, the Usami company announced that they were going to launch a brand new gaming console based on Virtual reality. Before then they’d just focused on producing movies and TV shows, but apparently VR Gaming was where the money was. Fuyuhiko Usami and his son lead the project and they wanted it to be better than the best. They hired me. They knew I was a successful manga artist, so I made some original games for their new console. I actually made Marukawa Knights: the Quest.”  
“So you created this game?!” Ijuuin nodded  
“I did this one and a couple of others. I was leader of the story development team, meaning coming up with quests and character designs etc. But that’s beside the point.  
I came up with this game and they loved it. Because of that they invited me to the launch party.” He shuddered. “That party was where it all went wrong.” He said grimly “The Usami company invited around 50 people, mainly staff as well as a couple of people chosen from a raffle, to demo the games. They could play any game in the main menu so long as they were all using the VR console.”

“Then something happened, I couldn’t explain it, it was just… binary. Zeroes and ones and then suddenly I was here, in this tavern. I freaked out of course. At first I went around and found everyone who had been playing, asking them what was going on, if this was part of the game. But I soon realized that I was the only one who remembered anything. It doesn't matter who you ask Misaki, everyone in this reality has forgotten everything about their past lives. Except from me. Even the ‘king’ has no idea what’s going on. They all believe that this world is their reality.” Misaki stared wide eyed  
“But if the game had a fault this big surely someone would have stopped the launch?” Ijuuin nodded at him  
“You’d think that? I should have known something was up though, they even had a medical team on standby… Apparently making money was more important than a few system errors.”  
“How is it that you remember everything?” Ijuuin shook his head  
“I have no clue. All I can say to you know is that I’m sorry.”  
“Why?”  
“I created this world, if I hadn’t helped maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.” Misaki frowned, staring at his cooling cup of tea.  
“Ijuiin-sensei, have you ever received a quest?” the other man frowned  
“I haven’t, have you?” Misaki nodded  
“If I complete my quest, I’ll be able to go back to the real world.” Ijuuin didn’t look at Misaki. “And when I finish it I’ll find a way to bring you all back. I don’t know how yet but, there has to be a way.” Misaki stood. Instead of being scared by his quest he was more motivated than ever. It wasn’t just his life anymore; it was the lives of everyone who had been trapped in here that he had to save. He couldn’t waste any time. “Thank you for everything, Ijuuin-sensei.” He made to leave  
“Misaki wait!” Ijuuin ran into the store cupboard and brought out a large scroll of paper.  
“What is this?”  
“It’s a map.”  
“But I already-” Ijuuin shook his head smiling  
“This one is special, I’ve only ever leant it to one person before. It’s a map which shows glitches in the game. You can take shortcuts through the game if you use it. But be careful, the places were there are Xs are where the game is faulty, you don’t want to get stuck in there.” Misaki nodded.  
“Thank you Ijuuin-sensei.” He put the map in his inventory and left.

The map directed him to a cross road with a crumbling brick outhouse to the right hand side. Here, if he ran into the wall with a panda drawn on it, then he would be able to travel half way across the map in no time at all. He tried to calm himself, but he could only be so calm about running head first into a brick wall. He could do this. He could do this. He ran forward closing his eyes.

As expected there was no impact. He opened his eyes experimentally. He was hanging in a dark space, surrounded by zeroes and ones glowing green. “The game matrix...?” He gasped. The map had told him not to stop running when he got past the wall, so he turned and ran on what seemed to be nothing. He began to feel himself being pulled downwards fast. He was about to close his eyes, unsure of where he would land, when something caught his eyes. He around to see not one, but two people running beside him, in the opposite direction. Their eyes widened.  
“Kamijoh-sensei?” He shouted in surprise. The other man looked like he was about to say something but before he could, Misaki was pulled down fast, through the game matrix and onto solid cold ground.  
“Ouch!” he gasped, rubbing his back. He whipped his head around. There was no way, no way, that his teacher was in the game too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is still more stuff about how they got into this mess to explain, but that's for the next couple of chapters! Misaki has to meet a certain Dark Lord before he can learn much else!


	9. Incognito Mode

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oaky so trigger warnings for this chapter are:
> 
> Violence/ Blood/ Physical abuse! If you aren't prepared for that, just wait for the next Hiroki/Nowaki chapter which will most likely be tooth rotting fluff ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You're reward for waiting like a month whilst I finish my deadlines for this term is a nearly 8000 word chapter! Even I'm impressed with myself. Sorry for not updating in ages please don't disown me!
> 
> As always thanks for reading! I love you all <3

“Okay this is your last chance for victory sex.”  
“I sad no brat.” 

Shinobu and Miyagi were standing in an anti chamber, observing the semi-conscious body of Johann. The man was tied to the bed with his head lolled to the side slightly, drool spilling from his chapped lips. He looked like an old baby  
“Ugh I can’t believe I actually kissed him…” Miyagi glanced at him curiously  
“Shouldn’t you be used to this kind of thing by now? I mean, you have sex for a living don’t you?” Shinobu blushed and opened his mouth to reply just as the drooling man stirred

“W-what’s going on…?” He slurred eyes drifting lazily for a moment until he realized that he was tied up. He shot up, immediately becoming alert and struggling against his ties “Release me.”  
“No.” Shinobu replied. He smirked, moving to sit cross legged at the foot of the bed, just out of Johann’s reach. “We need you to talk to us first, then we’ll consider releasing you.”  
“We?” Johann’s eyes darted up at Miyagi filled to the brim with rage  
“Miyagi this is an order. Release me.” Shinobu tensed slightly, a part of him still expected Miyagi to betray him and let Johann go. But he needn’t have worried, Miyagi moved to lean against the wall by the bed, folding his arms and looking at his former boss defiantly  
“I don’t appreciate taking orders from scum like you.” Johann’s jaw dropped, shook from Miyagi’s the harsh tone. Shinobu grinned  
“You’re so sexy when you’re angry.” Miyagi blushed just a little before rolling his eyes for what must have been the millionth time that day  
“Get on with the interrogation.”

“Johann, I think you know that there’s no escape for you if you lie to us. So how about you tell us the truth and maybe we won’t hurt you, okay?” Shinobu finished the sentence with a false smile. “So do you recognize this letter.” He asked pulling out said letter and waving it around  
“You shouldn’t have read that.”  
“Oh but we did and it’s very interesting. So you helped conspire with King Fuyuhiko to kill the old royal family. I wonder how the court would react if they found out about that…”  
“No one would believe you, a whore, with only that letter as evidence.” Shinobu pursed his lips, pretending to think  
“Perhaps… but maybe they’d believe the lost prince.” Johann froze, eyes widening. There was a heavy silence, until he muttered  
“How do you know about that?”  
“I didn’t, but you just confirmed it for me.”  
“Wait What?! You can’t do that!” Johann spluttered, struggling angrily against his restraints. 

Miyagi eyed Shinobu curiously. The guard would be lying if he said he wasn't impressed by the teenager’s intuition. He watched as the blonde shuffled slightly on the bed so his toes were curled beneath him slightly and his elbow on his knee and his head on his hand. The position was like, dare he say it, hella cute. As if he’d just become aware of Miyagi’s staring, Shinobu flicked his gaze over to the taller man and grinned wickedly  
“Miyagi where were you two headed before you stopped off here?”  
“The Winter Palace, it’s being looked after by a lord whilst the royal family is in the summer residence.” Shinobu raked his teeth slowly across his bottom lip as he contemplated this new information. Shinobu knew what he was doing, he had to, no one was this naturally sexy. Miyagi would not lose to a brat like him.

“Who was the letter intended for?” Johann grit his teeth, looking away.  
“I’ll never tell you.”  
“Who was the letter intended for?” He repeated. Silence. Shinobu sighed  
“Fine, Miyagi.” He other man looked over “Cut off his fingers.”  
“NO!”  
“How many?” Miyagi asked pulling out a knife  
“Hmm, however many it takes before he talks.”  
“YOU CAN’T DO THIS.” The man cried out as Miyagi grabbed his hand. He struggled but he wasn’t strong enough to wiggle out of his grasp. Shinobu could see the fear in the man’s eyes as the knife pressed against his pinky finger.  
“STOP. I’LL TELL YOU EVERYHTING.” Shinobu grinned, as he thought, the man was a coward.

“There are… rumors, they started a little while ago, that one member of the former royal family is still alive. No one knows where he is or even who he is, but we’ve been secretly trying to find and kill him ever we first found out. That letter you just read is the first hand account of lord who saw the massacre first hand. He was young, but he kept diaries in great detail. I’m going to figure out if the princes escape was possible and who might know anything of his whereabouts.” Shinobu opened the letter, sure enough everything the man confirmed was in there.  
“Why the winter palace?”  
“That’s where the massacre happened, we wanted to try and find new information.”  
“When are they expecting you?”  
“Tomorrow.”  
“Oi Shinobu,” the teen turned to Miyagi “the people in the palace, they’ve never met this guy before.” Shinobu frowned  
“What does that have to do with…” realization slowly dawned on him and he turned back to Johann beaming  
“Looks like you’re getting a holiday.”  
They gave Johann one of Shinobu’s special pills which made the person forget the last 24 hours of their life, then snuck him out through the brothel. When Beka had asked them what was going on, Miyagi explained that Shinobu had been so good he passed out.

“He also wanted me to give you this.” Miyagi through a sack of gold coins at Beka, who gaped in awe at the amount, eyes wide “he is officially purchasing Shinobu’s services. Permanently. We’ll be leaving.” He continued walking away with Johann’s limp body flung over his shoulder. Shinobu smiled at her sheepishly  
“Beka, thank you for helping me.” The black haired woman sighed and gripped his shoulder  
“I thought you wouldn't stay long. Here take these.” She passed Shinobu a bag of the hair beads, just like the ones he’d used on Johann. “They’ll keep you safe, remember you’ll always have a place here.” Shinobu thanked her then joined Miyagi outside. Shinobu saw his character bar glow bright and gold, the words “Level up!” appearing only for a moment, before it went back to normal. He smiled to himself proudly. He was getting stronger.

The carriage was only big enough for one person to ride in, so they stowed Johann’s body in there and Shinobu joined Miyagi, who was sitting at the front steering the horses. Shinobu didn't say much at the beginning, instead choosing to sleep (then maybe Miyagi would see how cute he was when he was asleep and then finally he’d get over this stupid too young thing) But the rattling of the carriage wheels and the bumpy road were enough to keep him awake and tense. Giving that up he just watched the scenery. This game world was stunning, he had to admit. The graphics were also unbelievable and in all his time here, he’d hardly ever seen a single glitch. It was ironic in a way if he wasn’t stuck in this world, he’d have spent all his time playing it anyway.

He looked over at Miyagi. The thing with NPCs in this game, was that they all had default expression. The bar tenders were always warm and welcoming, the guards were stony faced, the thugs looked mean. This, he assumed, was due to the games budget. Whoever made this game didn’t bother spending time crafting each individual face for each NPC so after a while, Shinobu began to see the same face on many people. But never Miyagi’s. He had to have seen them all by now, given the nature of the work he did in the brothel. Everyday he’d wake up and wonder if he’d see a Miyagi clone walk through the door and crush all his hopes that maybe he was real person, but he never did. He waned to believe it, he really did. But if Miyagi was from the real world, why didn’t he say anything? Or remember anything? Was he hiding something? No, that was impossible. He trusted Shinobu enough to drug and kidnap an important man with him, and you just don’t keep secrets from someone after going through something like that. 

The carriage began to descend down the other side of a hill, and Shinobu suddenly didn’t trust himself holding on with only one hand anymore. He realized then that he was still holding on to Beka’s beads.  
“Open inventory” Shinobu stowed away his parting gift from Beka in one of the glowing grids. With his now free hand he gripped Miyagi’s arm tightly, catching his attention.  
“That’s a pretty impressive inventory” he noted curiously “some of this stuff will be pretty useful.” Shinobu nodded  
“A lot of it was given by patrons, or stuff I stole when they didn't notice. The more I stole the higher my ‘espionage XP’ became. Also the better I got at seducing, the more gifts and coins they’d give me, so it was just good business at the time, I never really thought any of it would be useful.” As Shinobu finished his sentence, he noticed Miyagi grow a little uncomfortable at his words. Had he said something wrong? “Are you okay?”. Miyagi frowned, opening and closing his mouth as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t put it in to words. Eventually he shook his head and settled on  
“Fine” then set his eyes back on the road. The teen frowned, but didn’t say anything.  
“Old people are weird.” He muttered under his breath. They sat in an awkward silence for the rest of the journey. They only spoke again when the sun was falling behind a mountain and the carriage, which had been travelling through a thick forest all day, finally emerged at the foot of a magnificent castle surrounded by fields and lakes. 

“Wow…” Shinobu couldn’t help but gasp, Miyagi smiled  
“It’s a hell of a lot better than the city right?”  
“Definitely”

Miyagi stopped the carriage in the shade of a thick copse of trees, just 200 meters or so from the main gate. The stepped down from the front, Miyagi even turned to help Shinobu to the ground. The blonde blushed, and the black haired man pretended not to notice how cute it was. They made their way to the back of the carriage and pulled open the door. Johann, who had been flung against the door at some point in the journey, flopped out and landed at their feet.  
“uh” he groaned. Miyagi and Shinobu both tensed, but the man didn’t wake up  
“He should be out like that for a while.”  
“How long” Miyagi asked, Shinobu shrugged  
“2 hours maybe.” The guard nodded. Shinobu pursed his lips. Neither had any idea what to do now, but both knew they couldn’t just stare at the unconscious man for much longer. They only had a couple of hours before he would wake up, and who knew what would happen then. Miyagi’s stomach grumbled.

“Hungry?” the blonde asked  
“Starving. We brought some food with us but nothing particularly fancy.” Miyagi pondered as he opened a trunk on the back of the carriage and pulled out some bread, spices and a large green cabbage. “This is all we have” he said, setting them down in front of Shinobu  
“I can work with this.” Shinobu said, picking up the cabbage “I’m assuming you have pots and pans or something?” Miyagi nodded and grabbed them from the trunk. He looked on, impressed at Shinobu’s confidence.  
‘he must be a pretty good cook then…” Miyagi mused silently as he set to work lighting a fire.

No more than 20 minutes later, he was proved wrong. The black haired man stared down at the brown sludge in his bowl, dreading the meal. His eyes drifted up to Shinobu who was watching Miyagi intently, refusing to pay his own serving any mind until he’d seen Miyagi take a bite. Resigning him self to his fate (and praying that he wouldn’t be poisoned) he took a bite. Shinobu was watching him closely, so he tried his hardest to hide the shudder at the taste of the bitter, salty sludge  
“How is it?” He asked curiously. Miyagi always believed honesty was the best policy, but in this case it might be best to bend the truth  
“I can honestly say I’ve never tasted anything on this level before. I’m surprised you could even turn a cabbage into this.” Miyagi forced another few spoonful’s down his throat and smiled at the blonde, whose expression remained impassive  
“So will you make me your trophy husband now or..?” Miyagi choked on his food  
“What why would I do that?” he asked exasperated. Why was this kid so persistent?  
“Well over the course of the last day or so we’ve established that you trust me enough to drug your boss and take me on a wild adventure, and trust is the most important part of a relationship.”  
“Yes.” Miyagi said “A platonic, father son kind of relationship.”  
“I can call you daddy if you like?” Shinobu grinned, shifting in his set slightly so his vest fell open just a little, revealing his taught pale stomach. Miyagi caught himself before he stared too long and replied hastily  
“What the hell no no that’s not-” Miyagi burned red as he spluttered out every word of denial he could  
“You also clearly find me attractive.” Shinobu smirked as he set his bowl down and crawled on his hand and knees towards the older man, swaying his hips hypnotically. Miyagi watched the movements, almost convinced that making a complete mess of the blonde right then and there was a good idea. Almost. Shinobu was about to climb into his lap when Miyagi put his hands on his shoulders, pushing him away.  
“You’re too young.”  
“I’m already 17!”  
“I’m 17 years older than you.” Shinobu puffed out his cheeks in frustration, moving back to his seat by the fire  
“Fine, I’ll just seduce you later.”  
“Sure thing kiddo.”

At some point during their conversation the sun had fallen behind a mountain and the lights of the castle glowed a warm yellow against the inky black sky. They were both looking at the castle, feeling strangely pulled towards the place.  
“We need a plan.” Shinobu stated bluntly.  
“Yes.”

They got out the letter and studied it carefully. Tonight there was a ball. Johann was to meet with a noble who, judging by the contents of the letter, he had never met before. The man claimed to have information regarding what really happened the night the former Royal family were killed.  
“We’ll sneak in, you pretend to be Johann and get the information out of this noble, then sneak back out.” Shinobu suggested, out of the corner of his eye he saw his espionage XP go up  
“We can’t go in the front, if we turn up without a carriage it’ll be too obvious that something’s not right, people might get suspicious.”  
“Then we’ll go in through a window and find our way, if we meet a guard we’ll just say we got lost.”  
“Okay that makes sense... but we do have another problem.”  
“What’s that?”  
“Johann was supposed to come alone. There’s no way to explain you being there.” Shinobu bit his lip. Miyagi was right, how could they get around this? They sat in thought but with the night baring down n them, they knew they had to figure something out soon. Then Shinobu’s face broke into a mischievous smile  
“I have a plan.” He grinned at Miyagi wickedly. The man suddenly felt uneasy  
“This doesn’t sound good…”  
“Looks like I get to call you daddy tonight after all.”

The great hall was alive with the flicker of candlelight and the drunken voices of the rich and well to do. All around the room people were gathering to watch one of the many performances scheduled for the night. So far a court jester had entertained them, inspiring the crowd to drink more and more. By the time a singer had crooned his final note, the flock of people had lost all reason. It was the perfect night for a break in.

Not far from the great hall, was a long corridor winding through the castle, getting darker and dingier the further form the hall it went. In the furthest room, closest to the castles edge, was a broom cupboard filled with nothing more than a bucket and a small window. Stuck in that window, was a tall dark haired guard who was regretting every life choice that had brought him here. Pulling him through the too small gap, was a volatile blonde, who was regretting the very day he decided to seduce this gorgeous idiot.

Shinobu had gotten through easily, still being quite small and skinny, but with his wide shoulders and hips it was almost impossible for Miyagi. Shinobu was standing on the inside of the room with his feet braced against the wall beneath the window, he was using every ounce of strength in his body to pull Miyagi through.

“It’s too small. There’s no way I’ll fit.” Miyagi said as he tried to reposition himself  
“You’re too big! Maybe we should change position” Shinobu whined  
“Damn it’s tight!” Miyagi cried out as his hip grated against the rough stone.  
“Maybe we need some kind of lubricant.” Shinobu groaned forcing his aching arms to pull harder.  
The guard was thankful for the lack of light in the room, otherwise Shinobu would definitely see the blush on his cheeks. This conversation felt a little bit too sexual compared to the activity. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and focused on the task ahead.  
“Come on we got your shoulders through, we’re almost there.” Miyagi nodded and Shinobu locked his knees. “On three you wiggle and I’ll pull. Ready?” Miyagi grunted in confirmation. “1” he braced “2” they tensed “3!”. Crash.

Miyagi came free all at once, falling straight through the window and landing on top of Shinobu. The guard was panting from the fall, his mouth open and resting against something warm and… tasty?

He opened his eyes, confused, to see a bewildered and blushing Shinobu right beneath him.  
He had fallen, lips first, straight onto Shinobu’s bare chest. The blonde was still wearing nothing but his jeweled waist coat, which had flown open giving the falling man full access to one of the pink perky nipples on his chest. He froze there in shock until Shinobu couldn’t help letting out, “ah!” at the feeling of hot breath against the sensitive skin.

Nope nope nope.

Miyagi threw himself off the blonde, scrambling to the other side of the room covering his mouth. Shinobu pulled his waist coat back over his chest and scrambled back to his feet. To Miyagi’s surprise, he almost seemed shy about the incident. A strange warmth spread through his gut at the sight  
“That was an accident. Sorry.” He said quickly, eyes darting down to Shinobu’s chest. Shinobu did not miss the subtle look. Before Miyagi could say anything else he reconstructed his indifferent expression and replied  
“Of course you didn’t, it’s my job to seduce you remember? Are you getting forgetful already old man?” Shinobu grinned  
“Of course not, brat.” Miyagi rolled his eyes  
“Then you’ll remember that we have a job to do right?”  
“How could I forget?”

They changed into the suits they’d stolen from the carriage, Miyagi making an obvious effort to look nowhere but the wall. He didn’t want to see the pale, supple, skin and the toned muscles of the teens back. He. Didn’t. Want. To.  
Behind him Shinobu rolled his eyes exasperated  
“I’m decent.” He called over “but I can’t do this this… thing.” He growled frustrated and gesturing at the cravat loose around his neck.  
“I got it.” Miyagi came close to the blonde and grasped the material between his fingers, pulling it tight.  
“You trying to choke me daddy?” Miyagi hoped his face didn’t betray how much of a turn on that was  
“You talk to your mother with that mouth?” he chided as he tucked the now tied fabric into the jacket Shinobu was wearing. He looked every inch the noble’s son; he was short but he held himself with an air of superiority making him appear taller than he actually was, his clothes too (although a little long and wide in places) made him look very handsome.  
“You know this might just work kid.”  
“I never doubted it for a moment.” He replied confidently. Miyagi too was wearing formal clothes which belonged to Johann but they fit him a lot better. They had a last once over, stashed their own clothes behind the door and walked out into the corridor. 

As they walked towards the sounds of activity, Shinobu suddenly remembered something they’d forgotten.  
“Won’t our name panels be different?” Miyagi frowned  
“What do you mean?”  
“Above our heads, our names still say Shinobu and Miyagi.” The older man gripped the teens shoulder reassuringly  
“Don’t worry, we just need to go into incognito mode before we go in. Your espionage level is high enough so it won’t be a problem.” Shinobu nodded. They paused in a servant’s corridor just off of the main room.  
“Activate incognito mode.” They said aloud. The air around them rippled slightly but otherwise everything seemed normal. He looked up anxiously to see that his info panel had disappeared along with his health and XP bars. In their place was a single red bar which was slowly emptying  
“It’s a timer, when the bar empties fully we wont be able to use incognito mode again for at least a few hours.” Miyagi informed Shinobu as he peeked around the corner to check the coast was clear  
“How long do we have?”  
“I’d say about an hour.” Shinobu nodded uncertainly. Sensing his apprehension Miyagi turned around and gripped both his shoulders again  
“Don’t worry. We can do this.”  
“I trust you.”

The words surprised even Shinobu himself. He had grown accustomed to distrusting people, ever since he realized that no one understood him. Only Misaki had ever cared enough to try, but Shinobu had never allowed himself to completely open up to the other teen. He was in the year above so would graduate before him, and looking at his grades it was unlikely that they’d end up at the same university. Shinobu had held back because he didn’t want to deal with the loneliness which was bound to come once his only friend was out of his life. He’d always thought it was better that way.

So why was it that he trusted this man, who he knew nothing about other than his name, occupation, and the fact that he may not even be real? In every way opening up to him was worse than opening up to Misaki. He didn’t want to admit it, but even if he managed to seduce Miyagi, it wouldn’t last; he’d go back to the real world and Miyagi would go wherever it was he came from and it would be over. Every way he looked at it, this was a terrible idea. 

But still.

“I trust you too.”

Miyagi was holding his shoulders, his grip strong but not painful. They were looking at each other neither sure as to why they weren’t moving away. Neither realizing that they were in fact moving closer. Shinobu leant forward, arms moving to wrap around the older man’s neck. Miyagi’s gaze was flitting between Shinobu’s eyes and his lips. He could feel his warm sweet breath on his face. They were so close.

Miyagi turned his head away. Shinobu froze. 

“We have to go.” He pulled away and began to walk towards that great hall. Shinobu had no choice but to follow. He felt sick to his stomach. How had he misjudged that so badly? He felt his gut twist in humiliation. Somehow this was more embarrassing than any of the advances he’d made before. Miyagi couldn’t know how much those three words meant to someone like him. He didn’t know that in his mind “I trust you” was just as meaningful as  
“I love you.”

The large oak doors were flung open and a task bar appeared in front of them

Mission: find the noble (Target) Johann was corresponding with and learn the secret of the what happened all those years ago.  
Rewards: +50 espionage XP, +40 stealth XP, +15 seduction XP (Dancer Only)

A booming voice announced their arrival

“Viscount Johann Hesse and his son Victor Hesse.” The made their way into the room, but by now the guests were so drunk they could barely stand on their own two feet, let alone wonder  
“since when did the Viscount have a son?”

The pair were not left alone for long, before a chubby man with a handlebar moustache approached them and clapped Miyagi in the back  
“Johann long time no see?” he laughed

Ask about target/ loot/ flirt

“So” Miyagi began curiously “How do you know our host? I didn’t know you were friendly”  
“Ah I met him for the first time maybe 30 years ago. It was a party quite like this one. We’ve helped each other out of some tight spots during our time as friends but I suppose we never made a big deal of it!”  
“Shall we go speak to him? Maybe we can reminisce about our time together.”  
“I would love to, but I’m afraid your son might find our conversation rather dull.” He looked at Shinobu, who had been observing the crowd, with an apologetic expression. The blonde beamed a large fake smile at the older man  
“Don’t worry about me! Daddy knows what I like” Miyagi forced himself not to react. The little brat was enjoying this he knew it.  
“Then let’s find him shall we.”

 

The chubby man led the through the room towards the back wall, where a dark haired man was entertaining a group of very flirtatious ladies. They all let out a barrage of high and squeaky laughter as the trio approached. It hurt Shinobu’s ears. But the dark haired man definitely did not hurt his eyes. He was muscular and tall, with wide shoulders and thick thighs. His skin was a warm tan and his hair and eyes were both chocolate brown. The man must have felt Shinobu’s gaze as he turned his looked his way and winked.

Shinobu blushed and looked away. Miyagi did not miss the exchange. He also did not miss the look on the other mans face as he checked Shinobu out. That twist in his gut was back, only this time it was tinged green with jealousy.

“Jianyu you do have a habit of keeping the beauties of court to yourself. Why not share their charms?” the noble, Jianyu, smiled warmly at his friend. The smile didn’t seem to reach his eyes  
“Ah Harald you seem to be unaware of the beauty you are in the company of.” The comment went over the chubby man’s head but Miyagi did not miss it. He did not like this guy. He pushed through the crowd to stand in front of Jianyu.

Miyagi had a good couples of inches on him, but Jianyu was younger and seemed far more relaxed than the black haired man.  
“Harald” he called over to the man who was attempting to woo a very disinterested lady “you’ve not introduced my to our new friends.”  
“I am very capable of introducing myself.” Miyagi added curtly. “My name is Johann Hesse.”

The atmosphere changed so drastically, Shinobu was actually surprised no one else in the crowd seemed to notice. Jianyu tensed, all traces of warmth flooding from his face. His eyes narrowed, searching for something in Miyagi’s face  
“You look younger than I imagined.” Miyagi smiled coldly  
“I’m old enough to have a grown up son.” Jianyu’s eyes drifted to meet Shinobu’s. He suddenly felt very intimidated by the man. There was something unreadable in his expression which made him uneasy to say the least.  
“You’ didn’t say you were bringing him.” He replied, not taking his eyes off of Shinobu “I assume he knows everything?”  
“He knows no more than he needs to.”

Jianyu took a step back and looked around the room subtly. Once he was satisfied no one was paying them much attention, he jerked his head in the direction of a small dark wood door.  
“They’re too drunk to notice us leaving, but follow in 5 minutes just to be certain.” Jianyu walked away shooting them one last look before he slipped through the door at the end of the room. The tension visually left Miyagi’s body, his shoulder rolling back to their relaxed form.  
“I don’t like him.” He grumbled. Shinobu nodded vigorously.  
“Miyagi” he whispered pulling the taller man to the side so that no one would hear them “I think he has plans for me.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I see that look from men in the brothel all the time. I just wasn’t expecting it from him so I didn’t realize until now. He’s not going to give anything up unless he get’s something from us first.” He tensed his jaw “from me.”  
“I won’t let him.”  
“No that’s not what I’m trying to say” Miyagi looked perplexed, waiting for Shinobu to explain “I think you should let him. Then not only will you get what ever information he already has, but you can also find out more whilst he’s distracted. I’ll use the beads Beka gave me so you don’t have to worry about me. I’ll keep him distracted.”

Miyagi remained silent. He didn’t like it, but he supposed that it made sense for the mission. Besides, Shinobu was simply his accomplice, what right did he have to get in his way? He didn’t like it. Was that enough reason to stop him being alone with the other man? Stop him potentially doing… other things with him?

“Miyagi” Shinobu gripped his arm, pulling him from his thoughts “trust me.”  
“fine.”

The followed 5 minutes later to find Jianyu waiting for them in a candlelit corridor.  
“This way.” He led them down a winding corridor until they emerged into a well lit hall. The room, was beautiful; the walls were embellished with gold fittings, hand woven tapestries and oil portraits. But all of these beautiful things were made forgettable by the seemingly endless expanse of charred walls and carpets which adorned the far end of the room. Shinobu gasped.

“It happened in here. We thought about restoring it, but there really was no point, no one comes in here anymore. Too cold.”

Explore the room/ look for clues/ ask for information

“Is it okay if I have a look around?” Shinobu asked, piling fake innocence onto his voice. Jianyu nodded but then turned his attention back to Miyagi  
“I’ll show you to my journals. They’re locked away in the hidden room behind that books shelf.” The older men left the room, letting Shinobu relax a bit.

The teen walked over to the burnt side of the room. Was it arson? Maybe they caused a fire to cover their tracks? It must have been long ago as everything in the room was coated with a thick layer of dust. His attention was drawn to a large sheet of fabric covering something flat and square propped against the blackened wall. It was glowing at the edges with a golden light. The same kind of light which illuminated the quest panels which appeared as the story progressed. The game wanted him to look under here. He pulled on the fabric, coughing as dust flew through the air and hit him in the face. Beneath the fabric was a large oil painting.

Staring up at him from the canvas were 7 people all fair skinned with light brown hair, except for one boy at the front middle of the painting whose hair was black like midnight. The man standing at the back, with his hands placed on the boy’s shoulders, was clearly the king. He held wore a crown which fit his head so well it was almost like an extension of his body. To his right was a beautiful woman, with long flowing hair arranged into a simple braid. Around them were smiling children, two girls and three boys. Although he was not the tallest and clearly not the oldest, the boy in the middle looked out with a soft frown mouth set into a line. Where had he seen that before?

“It’s a nice portrait isn’t it?” Shinobu whirled around, startled by the sickly sweet sound of Jianyu’s voice from right behind him. “Sorry did I scare you?” Shinobu shook his head  
“No I just…”  
“Don’t worry I’ve been told I can be a little intimidating at times.” Jianyu chuckled. At Some point in the exchange his hand had come to rest on the small of Shinobu’s back. The man traced small circles into the fabric of his shirt. It felt wrong.  
“You’re pretty young, I suppose you don't really know much about the past royal family?”  
“No more than what my father has told me.”  
“Well that’s the old king, he was… liberal if we’re using a nice word.”  
“And if we’re not?” Shinobu asked curiously. Jianyu’s hand faltered, before it snaked around his waste. The blonde suppressed a shudder.  
“He was reckless. Wanted to give too many freedoms to people who didn’t deserve them.”  
“I see. Is that why he had to die?” the older man nodded in fake resignation  
“It couldn’t be helped. We couldn’t help the people without taking him out of the picture first. And naturally that meant we had to take the others out too.” He had moved so that he was standing directly behind Shinobu. One hand was stoking his side whilst the other had begun to feel its way beneath his shirt. His breath hitched. This was different from the brothel; in the borhtel he knew he had the upper hand and he was surrounded by allies. Here he had to fight alone, on unfamiliar territory. It was harder than he thought to hide his nerves. Luckily for him, Jianyu took his nerves as a sign of anticipation.  
“You like that?” he purred into Shinobu’s ear. He shivered as the cold hands stroked up his torso to his chest. To the place where Miyagi’s mouth had been only an hour before.

Miyagi sneezed. Someone must be thinking about him. He looked up at the red line above his head. They had maybe an hour before incognito mode wore off completely. 

“After you” he gestured to Miyagi to push on the bookshelf. It opened slowly, as if it had been years since anyone had been in the room. It was dark and dusty and was filled to the brim with journals.  
“This is the diary entry from that night” The dark eyed man said as he passed a neat but fairly old volume to Miyagi. He leant against the wall and examined the words carefully. It seemed pretty standard and very thorough; describing the guests at the party in great detail. When it got to the massacre itself Miyagi paused. He suddenly felt very apprehensive about reading this. Jianyu noticed  
“Something wrong?” he asked, a hint of malice in his voice  
“No no” he skimmed the next few lines until something caught his attention. “You think he escaped through a hidden door?”  
“A door only those with royal blood could open. I saw it happen.” Miyagi gasped  
“Why didn’t you say anything before now?”  
“Because I needed proof and you’ve just given it to me.” Miyagi frowned.  
“I don’t understand.” Jianyu barked out a laugh  
“We’re in that room right now, Yoh. You think you could fool me with a basic spy technique?!” Miyagi’s entire form froze. This guy was mad; he was suggesting that Miyagi was royalty? He didn’t believe it, but that didn’t make this situation any less dangerous. His hand drifted to his waist where he had stowed a dagger but he didn’t draw it yet.  
“When did you figure it out?” Jianyu smirked circling around Miyagi so that his back was to the door they’d just come through.  
“From the moment you claimed to have a son. The real Johann Hesse was sterile; a secret he’d only ever shared with me.” Miyagi’s expression was set into a cold poker face, but inside he was raging. How had he been so stupid? How had he got Shinobu caught up in this? His eyes flicked to the door but lingered just a moment too long  
“Oh are you worried by your little whore? Don’t you worry that boy isn’t going to go to waste. I’m certain I can make up for your absence whilst you’re trapped in here.”

Miyagi lunged, pulling out his knife and whirling through the air. His arms came slashing down in the place where Jianyu’s neck had been just a fraction of a second before. He puled back, spun on his heel and blocked a punch and another. He tried to move back, to get some space to try and swing the dagger again, but Jianyu had him cornered. He felt a knee connect with his gut and wind him on the floor. A hand grabbed his jacket and slammed his head into the marble tiles with a sickening ‘thwack’. His vision went blurry just in time to see Jianyu leave the room grinning.

Shinobu closed his eyes and tried to pretend the hands touching him were Miyagi’s. It almost worked. Jianyu was holding his trembling form tight against his own with one arm, whilst his other hand popped open the buttons of his shirt. The cold fingers roamed around his chest settling on one of the buds on his chest. He pinched it hard  
“Ah!” he cried out, more in pain than pleasure. Jianyu grinned against the flesh of Shinobu’s neck  
“I’m so glad your daddy let us have some alone time. Maybe I should ask if I can keep you a little longer.” Shinobu tried to disassociate as much as possible, but the feeling of the mans other hand moving to his belt had him in panic mode  
“P-please, we shouldn’t do this here, my father could come in at any moment.”  
“Then how about we give him a show?” Suddenly he was thrown against the wall, trapped beneath the taller man’s body. He was biting his neck, abusing the flesh there, leaving it raw and bruised for all to see. Shinobu cried out, feeling tears prick the corners of his eyes. What was taking Miyagi so long? Didn’t he realize what was happening to him out here? Didn’t he care? He tried again to reason with the man  
“Please- my father, not here.” Shinobu begged, as the brunette grinded against him  
“Your father isn’t coming.” Shinobu suddenly stiffened. His body began to grow cold.  
“W-what do you mean?” he asked nervously as Jianyu licked from his collar bone all the way up to the shell of his ear, then whispered  
“You really think I didn’t know what you were up to?”

Identity discovered, new objective: escape castle undetected

The whole room was suddenly tinged with red. Shinobu had not time to think. HE kicked with his legs, catching Jianyu by surprise. He scrambled away, running for the door he had come through. But he hesitated at the handle. What about Miyagi? That fraction of a second cost him dearly; Jianyu grabbed his collar and threw him to the ground with a sickening thud. His health bar suddenly dropped to half and a new fear wracked through him. What if he died in the game? He thrashed about under the weight of the brunette.  
“It’s a shame we didn’t get a bit more time together… I was having so much fun watching you panic.” Shinobu watched wide eyed as the brunette lay over him “maybe we can try again once you’re unconscious.  
“MIYAGI! MIYAGI” He yelled as loud as he could. He trusted Miyagi not to abandon him. He trusted him.

From behind the bookshelf, Miyagi stirred at the sound of his name. Where was he again? Wasn’t this his father’s study? Wait wasn’t he a guard? Guards don’t live in castles… Why was he here again? He heard the voice screaming his name. Who was that? Why was he on the floor. He felt a drop of blood trickle down his face and onto a book which had been cast aside carelessly on the floor.

He sat up, memories flooding back to him. Memories of why he was here, what he was doing and who needed him now more than ever. But also memories of a life he had almost forgotten. Of he he really was. He jumped to his feet. He had to help Shinobu. He grabbed the knife he had dropped in the struggle and hauled himself over to the bookshelf. The door was just wide enough for him to fit through (he couldn’t help but think back to the window he had to get through to even get into this castle). Through the crack he saw a sight which made his blood boil.

“Miyagi!” Shinobu was weeping. He had been beaten up pretty badly and now was pinned to the floor by Jianyu who was ripping his trousers off. A rip resonated through the air. Shinobu whimpered but the brunette laughed  
“You won’t be needing those anyway.” he mused as he took in the sight of the teen beneath him. Miyagi had to act now. The way Jianyu was positioning himself it looked like he was going to just thrust himself into the blonde without doing any kind of preparation at all.

He caught Shinobu’s eyes in the millisecond before he acted and in that moment they knew that something indescribable had changed between them. Shinobu suddenly wrapped his legs around Jianyu and, using all his strength, trapped him in place. Simultaneously Miyagi lauched himself from his hiding place, ignoring the pounding in his head, and swung down with his dagger.

Blood splattered all over Shinobu’s face and torso, as the blade sliced down Jianyu’s neck and back. The man rolled over in agony. He had no time to scream before Shinobu had his hands smothering his mouth. With Miyagi’s help they held him down until he stopped moving. Shinobu looked over at Miyagi fearfully  
“Is he dead?” the black haired man shook his head  
“Unconscious.” He reached behind him to finish the job, but the sound of feet gave them no choice but to run or hide.

Actually it was the game who gave them that choice. Although Shinobu was far too shaken to ‘Seduce your way out of it’.

Miyagi grabbed his hand and, for want of a better option, pulled him back behind the bookshelf and heaved it closed. They panted against the wall, calming their rapid heartbeats. Miyagi tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his limbs and head and focus instead on the commotion outside. He heard urgent voices and barked orders, but soon enough it sounded like everyone had gone searching elsewhere for them.

Miyagi bit his tongue in anger. He should have finished the job. He suddenly turned to Shinobu. Naked, blood soaked and shaken to his core, the teen was shrinking in on himself.  
“Shinobu look at me.” The teen shook his head. Miyagi reached out to take his arm but suddenly realized something  
“Shinobu, can I give you a hug?” the blonde looked over at him wide eyed. Was it such a surprise that he wanted a caring touch to eradicate the memory of the abusive touch? He nodded slowly. Miyagi wrapped his arms around the smaller body and pulled him close.  
“This whole quest is really fucked up.”  
“You’re telling me…”

They stayed in each others arms until the first signs of dawn began to shine through the small window. Miyagi had stayed alert whilst Shinobu slept fretfully. He had removed his own jacket and wrapped it around Shinobu’s shoulders. It was long and large enough to cover everything, like a dress, but there was nothing he could put on Shinobu’s feet. He prayed that he would have spare clothes in his inventory, so that they could sneak away from the castle as inconspicuously as possible.

Miyagi looked around the room for any signs of what to do next. It was just as it had been left the night before, only now there was a single golden, glowing arrow illuminating a large portrait, about the height and width of a human. He shifted, trying to examine it without disturbing Shinobu, but the teen’s eyes opened slowly regardless.  
“Sorry to wake you.”  
“s’ fine” he mumbled sleepily. Then, remembering where he was, he suddenly jumped to attention. Miyagi squeezed their hands (which had somehow become linked in the night) to try and calm him down.  
“It’s okay” he reassured the younger. Shinobu’s eyes darted around the room, settling on the same portrait Miyagi had been looking at before.  
“The game is giving us an escape route it seems.” He mused “I can’t say im not grateful” the blonde added as he got shakily to his feet whilt Miyagi supported him. They were about to walk up to the portrait when something else caught his eye. It was Jianyu’s jacket, it must have fallen in the fight. From the pocket a single rolled up letter was sticking. It felt almost too conveniently placed. Miyagi picked it up, careful not to knock off Shinobu’s balance and pocketed it. Something made him think this would be useful.

The pair stood before the portrait. It glowed and the game showed them a single option:

Reveal secrets

The portrait swung open to reveal a dark passage which seemed to lead deep beneath the ground. They shared one final look, both asking the other whether or not they were still in for the long run. This was the first test and it was likely that it would not be any easier form this point on. But when they looked into each others eyes, they knew that whatever was coming they could fight it together.


	10. Settings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nowaki and Hiroki figure out what the hell is going on, and meet a certain someone along the way...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's literally 2 am which means this hasn't been edited and I'm sorry but I will keep updating this even if it kills me. If you check back later it'll probably read a lot better.
> 
> I kinda like this chapter but i also hate it... so plot heavy... but we're setting up some important stuff here and pulling some threads together that should make this story flow a whole lot better!

“Welcome to my home Hiro-san!” the tall man said as he threw open a wooden door, placed equally, with almost scientific precision, between two windows. The moment he walked in Hiroki, inexplicably, felt a little annoyed. It must have shown on his face because Nowaki looked at him sympathetically as he went over and got some orange juice out of the fridge.

“Ah sorry I should have warned you about that, I ran out of funds near the end of building, so the wallpaper isn’t finished. I’ll probably have cash soon so it won’t last long. But until then the unfinished décor will make you pretty annoyed.”  
“What the..?”  
“In the world of the Sims every action has an effect on your mood, those moodlets show up in a bar above your head.” Hiroki looked up and was startled to see a green diamond and a couple of lines above his head. One was green about three quarters full and the other was pink, a third full. “your moods from interactions with others also show up there. The green is for friendship, and the other is attraction.” Hiroki’s jaw dropped as his face burnt to a crisp. His eyes drifted up to above Nowaki’s head, that guy was grinning like a kid in a candy shop, his pink bar was half full.  
“Uh…” he said spluttering. The taller man just stood there grinning happily a little longer, before he turned on his heel and called “follow me Hiro-san!”

Still a little shell shocked, he walked dazed through the house, trying to ignore his strange surroundings. He walked to the doorway where Nowaki had stopped. It was a sparsely decorated bedroom, with little more than a bed and a chest of drawers inside.  
“You can sleep here. Sorry it’s not much, but I rarely stay here longer than a day or two so...” He rubbed the back of his head self consciously.  
“It’s… it’s fine.” It was more than fine. The room looked normal enough that he could almost forget that he was stuck in a virtual world. Besides, he hadn’t slept well for days. It had taken them just about a week to get through all the games, and after being (for the lack of a better word) attacked by tetris blocks, cars and zombies, he could really do with a good night’s sleep. However, a grumble from his stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten for a while either.  
“Do we need food?” he asked earnestly, which elicited a loud laugh from the ravenette “hey don’t laugh, it’s a serious question!”  
“Yes Hiro-san, we do need food. I can order pizza, it’s actually pretty good.”  
“Sure.”

Nowaki moved back into the kitchen to order, leaving Hiroki alone in the bedroom. He stared at the soft, fluffy looking covers on the bed and he couldn’t help himself. He flopped forward, burying himself in the sheets. He breathed out a heavy sigh, relishing in the warm comfort of the sheets. It was a homely feeling he had missed since arriving in the game. Hiroki frowned into the pillow. Since he had met Nowaki in the first person shooter and since he had kissed him in Grand Theft Auto, the wariness he had felt around the man had gone away. Instead, he felt something…else. He may have acted coldly or said some stupid things, but more often than not he found himself blushing around the younger man. But was it okay for him to get involved with a man he knew nothing about? He still needed answers, and maybe now that they had made a home base here, Nowaki could actually answer them.  
“Mind if I join you, Hiro-san?” the brunette jumped in surprise. He felt the mattress move under the weight of Nowaki lying beside him on the bed. He opened his mouth to protest, but then he remembered that this was Nowaki’s house, technically if anyone should get off it should be him. But the tall man didn’t seem to mind his presence, So Hiroki turned so he was lying on his back and just stared at the ceiling as they lay side by side in a comfortable silence. If Hiroki noticed the occasional glances the Nowaki shot his way, he pretended not to. Instead he let his eyes fall closed and his body relax into the comforter a little more. A nap would do him good.

Hiroki slept well, and for much longer than he had anticipated. He was only awoken by the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, and the movement of the bed. He cracked his eyes open and was startled to see Nowaki’s face right above his own.  
“W-what the hell!” He jumped, sat up too quickly, then bashed their foreheads together with a painful ‘bang!’  
“Hiro-san the pizza is here.” Nowaki said calmly, as though he wasn't just assaulted by his houseguest.  
“I- Oh, sorry.” He watched as Nowaki pulled a pizza box so it was right in between them. It smelled heveanly. Hiroki greedily grabbed a slice, mouth watering and took a bit. His eyes widened.  
“Holy crap this is great! How can video game food taste this good?”  
“I know right?” Nowaki grinned as he dug into his slice. “I’ll miss it when we finally get outta here.”  
A string of too hot cheese burnt the roof of his mouth, making him hiss. Hiroki frowned down at the pizza.  
“You’re a doctor?”  
“Hm?” Hiroki put down his slice and leant an elbow on his knee, resting his head in his hands.  
“In the real world? You’re a doctor.”  
“Yes, well I think was is a better way to put it.”  
“well you’ll go back to it when all this is over right?” Nowaki’s smile faded and it was replaced with that same nonchalant look he had worn when they’d first met. Hiroki suddenly felt guilty, like he’d said something he shouldn’t have. Nowaki spoke  
“Hiro-san you have to understand, it may not look it, but I’ve been in here for years. I can’t just go back to a normal life when we- if we get back.”

Hiroki’s heart felt heavy with Nowaki’s words. Since they had met, Hiroki had realized that Nowaki operated in two states; the first was his instinctive mindset, the Nowaki who took the most straightforward action to ensure survival, whether that was making out with him to hide their faces or entering a car race. This was the cold Nowaki who he had first met. In times like these however, in moments of calm, Hiroki saw the goofy smile which could only belong to an optimist (or perhaps, a former optimist.) Nowaki had been weighed down by the world he had found himself trapped in.

But Hiroki would not let Nowaki wallow in these fatalist thoughts. Nowaki had to be active and willing and fighting, so that they could escape. Nowaki was his only way out and if he lost hope then there was no guarantee they would ever escape. Hiroki grit his teeth and leant forward, grabbing Nowaki’s shoulders startling the man out of his trance.

“We will get back. And when we do I will help you get back to normal.”  
“Hiro-san, you don't know what my normal is, there’s nothing you can do.”  
“Bull shit.”  
“Hiro-san,”  
“Bull. Shit. I’ll help you, however long it takes, I don’t care. We’ll get the hell out of this game even if it kills us. But don’t ever say there’s nothing we can do because there is always a way out.” He looked away in embarrassment “I won’t leave you to fight alone.”

As Hiroki spoke a blush began to rise on the younger man’s cheeks Nowaki’s eyes were wide like saucers and staring right at him. They were such a nice colour, kind of speckled grey like the moon. It was then that Hiroki realized quite how close their faces were and he himself felt a pink tinge creep up his cheek bones. Nowaki, to Hiroki’s horror, leaned even closer  
“Do you mean it Hiro-san?”  
“Mean what?” he murmured in response. Their faces were too close. Weren’t they having a really serious conversation only a moment ago?  
“That you’ll stay with me?”  
“Yes.”  
“Until we escape from here?”  
“Of course.”  
“…and after that?” Hiroki’s breath hitched in his throat. Nowaki had moved closer as they spoke, now his arms were braced on either side of him, their foreheads pressed together so that their breath mingled in the small space between them, tickling each others skin. Hiroki opened his mouth, but for a moment no words came out. He knew what he wanted to say, but was he ready for what would come after? He tried to look deeper in those grey irises to try and find the answer but instead he found himself getting lost in their colour. He had accepted his fate the moment he decided to fight for their future. Potentially a future together. He inhaled a shaking breath  
“And after that.”

Nowaki closed the space between them so quickly, he almost choked on the final word. He felt the man’s soft lips against his own, somehow both similar and different from their first kiss. The same person, the same lips, but this felt so much more real. Hiroki leant into the kiss, pushing Nowaki back slightly and bringing a hand up to caress the back of his neck. He felt Nowaki’s lips tug into a smile beneath his own. Encouraged by Hiroki’s response, Nowaki pulled the shorter man forward, so close that he was almost sitting on his lap, and deepened the kiss. He felt Nowaki’s arms snake up behind his back and grip him tightly. He could feel himself becoming slightly light headed, was aware he needed to break for air, but he didn’t want to let go just yet. Nowaki, sensing Hiroki’s growing breathlessness, relaxed the kiss until their lips were just barely grazing each other. The brunette pulled away, just enough so that he could look up at the dark haired man through his lashes. He was startled to see that the other man was crying.

“N-Nowaki?” Hiroki asked, suddenly worried that he’d done something wrong, crossed a line. He pulled back to give the other man some space but was almost immediately folded back into his arms and crushed against his chest. Nowaki let out a shaky sigh and buried his head into the crook of his neck.  
“I’m sorry…it’s just, you’re real. You’re the only real thing I have.” 

Hiroki maneuvered them so that they were lying side by side on the bed, Nowaki still tangle din Hiroki’s form crying quietly into his shoulder. Who fell asleep first Hiroki couldn’t be sure, the only thing he knew was that this was the most comfortable he’d felt in a long time.

~~~

When Hiroki’s eyes fluttered open hours later, he was alone in the bed. It took him a moment to register his surroundings, reminding himself, like he so often had to, that he was once again in a video game. He felt the covers next to him, they were still warm. He sat up and strained his ears trying to figure out where the raven haired man had gone. He heard nothing at first but then the tell tale signs of something cooking on the oven alerted him to the other man’s whereabouts. He felt himself relax a little. Nowaki was a like soldier on the front lines, if he hadn’t known it before he knew it now. The way the man could switch almost instantaneously between cold and warm, closed off and needy, was still shocking to Hiroki. It wasn’t like Hiroki didn’t understand himself what Nowaki was feeling; he too had had a changeable personality when he was younger, keeping even the people who loved him most at arms length. His eyes drifted to the open bedroom door, where Nowaki must have walked out only moments before. As much as he could empathize, he knew Nowaki was in need of help. You didn’t need to be a doctor to be able to tell that spending a decade trapped and alone in this world had turned Nowaki’s mood swings into full on bipolar. Nowaki was sick, and despite what he had said, there was no guarantee that Hiroki’s support alone would make him better.

“Hiro-san!” a cheery voice called form down the hallway, he grunted in response, which seemed to delight the taller man who promptly appeared at the door “breakfast is ready.” He grinned and walked back to the kitchen. Hiroki’s felt something warm in his chest, something he hadn’t expected to feel since this whole ordeal had started. He sighed and extracted himself form the covers. Even if he wasn’t what Nowaki needed in the long run, Hiroki was all he had and damn it he was going to try to help him. He cast his mind back to the darkest moments in his life and asked ‘how the hell did I get out of that?’. Hiroki remembered making plans, little goals and sticking to them the best he could. All Hiroki needed, was a place to start.

“Hiro-san I made macaroni and cheese because it’s literally the only thing I can cook here without setting the house on fire.” The brunette frowned at his plate, it looked…interesting to say the least  
“I’m sure it tastes fine…” he replied half heartedly. Nowaki laughed awkwardly  
“Yeah believe it or not in the real world I wasn’t actually a bad cook. But food here is weird.”  
“Other than that pizza you mean?” Nowaki lit up at the mention of the food  
“It’s just so good.” He closed his eyes, as if he could almost taste it from memory alone. It was goofy, but- and Hiroki would never admit this- kind of adorable. After finishing off his macaroni, the brunette caught Nowaki’s attention.

“So” The other man looked over at him “what’s the game plan?”  
“What for?”  
“Escaping of course. What have you tried, where have you been, how do we get around?” Nowaki put down his fork and lean back thoughtfully.  
“I’ll tell you what I know. It might take a while if that’s okay with you?”  
“Honestly, we haven’t really got a choice.” Nowaki nodded slowly, then got up  
“Walk with me.”

~~~

They headed out of the house and down a sunny path, bordered on one side by a blue river and on the other by a fairly quiet road and houses. It almost looked like Japan, if not for the sea which faded into a wall of bright blue, neither sky nor water, simply pixels. Nowaki had been silent for most of the way, choosing to ignore the subtle(ish) looks Hiroki was shooting him. He noticed Nowaki was wearing almost the same outfit he had been in grand theft auto, black coat over black jeans, with a blue scarf adding colour to his ensemble. Only here it seemed a lot cleaner and neater, as opposed to the ruff street style it had been in the other game. Seeing the shorter man eyeing his ensemble Nowaki smiled  
“Clothes are funny here, the style changes to fit the game, but the clothes stay pretty similar. You should have seen me in Marukawa knights, I looked so badass.” Hiroki frowned  
“So that’s why I ended up wearing that fucking latex thing in the racing game.”  
“The game had good taste.”  
“Shut up. You said you were going to tell me everything?” Nowaki nodded wordlessly. He looked to his left and saw an empty bench. “Let’s sit here.”

“I… where should I start… Back in my first year or so here I worked for a group whose goal was to escape from the game. We called ourselves Frontier. Together we learnt about maps and glitches and the main menu. We even started to build our own map to get around the game. But the thing was, the longer we spent in the game, the less we remembered. I think I explained how glitches work already?” Nowaki asked as they sat  
“Yeah, they’re like tunnels from game to game.”  
“Exactly. They’re essentially shortcuts so you don’t have to walk from map to map. Some let you travel between games, others take you straight to the main hard drive, that matrix we were in before. Others are tricky to get through like the one in the racing game. Some only send you to other places within the same game.”  
“Damn that’s… complicated.”  
“That’s why we needed the map.” Nowaki paused, he was frowning “ We were part way through making a back up map when something happened in Marukawa Knights. The glitches started, now this is weird, glitching. People who went through certain glitches would come out the other end having forgotten all or most of their memories. Some people even got stuck in locations on the map. So we escaped, or at least we tried.”  
“What happened?” he sighed, the memory still clearly weighed heavily on his conscience

“There were maybe…4 of us who managed to escape form Marukawa. One went crazy and disappeared back into Marukawa Knights. The other two went walked with me through…Portal. We made it out the other end, but I was the only one who remembered the real world by then. Did you see that red haired boy in the racing game?” Hiroki cast his mind back to the day before, vaguely remembering someone calling him a demon.  
“I think so.”  
“He’s been trapped in that game for years, thinking he’s a car technician.”  
“That’s awful.” Nowaki lay his head in his hands  
“I know, and it’s my fault. I abandoned them.” Hiroki put a calming hand on Nowaki’s shoulder  
“It’s not your fault. We can always go back to Marukawa?” Nowaki froze up beneath him. “Nowaki?” he asked, concerned.  
“Hiro-san, the game slot for Marukawa Knights is right between,” Nowaki shuddered “Portal 1 and Portal 2” he suddenly turned an unhealthy shade of pale green. Hiroki grimaced, unsure of what to say “Hiroki… I can’t. I can’t go back to Portal. Ever.”  
“Okay okay we won’t, we’ll stay far away.” Nowaki took a moment to collect himself, then carried on  
“We managed to learn one thing. The main menu is key. From there we can control the whole system. Only thing is, we need to get to settings, then override the administrator, and manually disable the virtual reality simulator.” Hiroki crossed his arms and stared out at the blue edge of the map in front of him.  
“I don’t want to, you know, undermine the trouble you’ve gone through to get this far or anything… but that doesn’t sound particularly difficult.” Nowaki smiled sadly  
“I know it doesn’t. But I’m a doctor, Hiro-san, not a hacker, or a computer programmer. I can only get so far before I encounter fire walls and viruses. And if you’ll believe it, of the people who managed to keep their memories long enough to join the Frontier, none of them were computer experts.”  
“I see…”　Hiroki paused, trying to process all of his thoughts. “Well, I’m no expert, but I taught these two kids in my school who were real geniuses with technology. They played a lot of games but they knew their stuff. If you showed me the settings, then maybe I can help you figure out where to start.” Nowaki gaped at him, as if stunned at the thought of actually taking action. Suddenly he grinned and stood  
“Okay! Let’s go.”  
“What right now?” Nowaki nodded enthusiastically, grabbing his hand and lacing their fingers together. Hiroki blushed and pulled his hand away only to have Nowaki grab his other hand instead. He grimaced  
“You’re not going to let me go are you?”  
“Nope.”

They wandered around the map a little until they found themselves in front of the library. Nowaki led him to the back of the building where, sure enough, there was a panda painted on the side of the wall.  
“Shall we?” Hiroki groaned  
“I hate this.”  
“Hopefully we won’t have to do it for much longer.”

They stepped back as far as they could, then ran at the wall. It was the same scene as when they’d first glitched; darkness for a moment, then a flourish of bright green zeroes and ones as they passed through the game matrix, then Hiroki felt his feet slam down on to solid ground. Only Nowaki’s strong grip on his arm prevented him from falling flat on his face. When he opened his eyes he saw that they were floating in that blue space on the edge of Sims3.  
“This is a weird one. You’ll see in a second.”  
“What?” He replied, confused. His confusion didn’t last long however as somewhere in front of him, he saw the glowing images of panels and logos which could only belong to the main menu.  
“Are we just drifting there?”  
“Yeah the Sims is weird, one way in one way out. But that’s why I don’t ever stay here too long, no escape route.”  
“Oh” Hiroki replied. Although they had walked practically the whole way here holding hands, Hiroki was still getting used to contact with the other man. He liked to take things slow because he got easily embarrassed. He was a sensible man after all. Now Nowaki was hugging him against his chest as they floated towards the main menu and the sudden lack of space between them was making him blush fiercely. It didn’t help that when they emerged from Sims3 and materialized on the main menu, they were back in their regular clothes. Now that he had seen it a couple of times, Hiroki couldn’t help but think how damn good the man looked in a doctor’s coat.

“It’s there.” Nowaki pointed in front of them, apparently oblivious to the smaller man’s anguish. “Make sure to brace yourself, there’s a bit of a drop on the other side.” The strange force which was moving them through this space was bringing them closer and closer to a discreet, monochrome square which simply read “settings” beneath a small image of a cog. Nowaki managed to angle them both through the small opening, and into a dark space. Hiroki, more concerned about their location than what was actually happening almost forgot to brace. He tensed up just as the two hit what felt like a cold metal floor. Dazed, he pulled himself to his feet.  
“Nowaki?” Hiroki asked confused. Around him was only darkness. He couldn’t see anything. He jumped as something grabbed his arm but calmed down when he heard  
“Just wait a little Hiro-san. The lights should come on soon.” Not a moment after he said that, fluorescent lights blinked on illuminating their surroundings.

They were standing on a grey metal walk way bordered by metal railings. Although the lights were quite bright, they still didn’t illuminate the walls around them or, to Hiroki’s displeasure, the pit beneath the walkway. He only had to peak over the rails for a moment to know that that cavern was miles deep.  
“I find it’s best to not look down.”  
“I agree with you there…” Hiroki tried to joke but he felt uneasy. Nowaki’s hand slid back into his own. Hiroki wasn’t blushing now.  
“Let’s go.”

It felt weird, walking in partial darkness in this cavernous room. They were still holding hands, but in no way was this like when they had been walking together in Sims3. Hiroki got the distinct feeling that he was not supposed to be here.  
“Nowaki. What are looking for?” His voice was hushed  
“We rarely came here, especially after we realized we couldn’t get through. But if I remember rightly…” he trailed off as they approached the end of the walkway. “Here we are.” He stopped them in front of what looked like a blank computer monitor. It wasn’t particularly old, like one of the gaming PCs companies had brought out a couple of years ago, but it was rather bulky as if something had been added to the back.  
“Is this it?” Nowaki nodded.  
“Try turning it on.” Hiroki bent down and tapped the keyboard. A few seconds later the screen beeped and lit up. Even if the computer seemed modern enough, the operating system was ancient. A single word, ‘password’ appeared on the screen with a blinking dash beside it.  
“Imagine it, Hiro-san. Imagine getting this far, discovering a way to escape from reality to reality, game to game, imagine setting up an organization, losing people, going through the kinds of horror’s only Portal could throw at you, only to realize the thing standing between you and freedom is a password.” Nowaki’s voice had turned cold, as if he was speaking through gritted teeth. Hiroki looked up at him, his heart heavy. Nowaki was looking straight past him, eyes filled with contempt and trained on the computer. Hiroki felt a shiver crawl up his spine.

Nowaki probably wouldn’t last much longer in here.

Hiroki turned back to the PC. He typed in the obvious passwords but to no avail. He moved around to the back of the monitor and looked around for the cables. Sure enough there were 3 cables plugged into the back; green, red and black. He tried to find the ends but he saw that they trailed off the edge of the platform and down into the pit.  
“Damn those must be the world’s longest extension cables.” He said aloud. He heard Nowaki chuckle but otherwise the man did not interrupt Hiroki’s investigation. He was thankful for that, as it was taking up all of his concentration to remember the basic hacking lesson he’d gotten in secret from his pupils. First get to an error screen. Fuck it, he thought, as he yanked out the red cable.  
“You know… when I still had people to discuss this with, we had decided not to randomly yank out cables from a machine we knew nothing about.”  
“Welcome to my world brat.” Hiroki groaned as he examined the screen. No change. He put the red one back in, then pulled out the green. The lights in the whole room shut off.  
“Good job.”  
“Shut up” Hiroki snapped, using the limited light from the computer to plug the red wire back in. He pulled out the black wire. The screen flickered, then all of a sudden an error screen appeared.  
“Great.” Hiroki leant towards the screen “No what do I do next..?”  
“Um Hiro-san…”  
“Just a second.”  
“Hiro-san turn around”  
“I said wait I think I have an idea.”  
“HIRO-SAN”  
“WHAT?”

Nowaki was staring, mouth agape, at Hiroki’s body. Frowning, he looked down to see what the problem was. He stifled a gasp. His teacher’s clothes were gone, replaced instead by a set of pale blue button down pajamas which were a few sizes too big and smelt like antiseptic. More startling however, was the blood which was beginning to seep from what looked like tears on his wrists.  
“N-Nowaki what the hell?”  
“I don’t know this has never happened before.”  
“What do I do?”  
“I don’t know plug in the black wire?” Hiroki scrambled to the back of the computer and shoved the wire back in. A sharp pain shot up his arm, making him gasp and clutch his limb. Nowaki rushed to his side and pulled him up, away from the computer. The screen was back on the password page, waiting for them to try again.  
“Let’s get out of here.” Hiroki stuttered, trying to stop the blood flow with his hands. “We can try again… again later…” Hiroki’s body suddenly began to feel heavy, almost like he’d been drugged.  
“Hiro-san!?” Nowaki cried out in alarm as he felt the shorter man slump against him.  
“Nowaki I can’t stand, my body feels so heavy…” Nowaki scooped him into his arms and carried him hurriedly away from the edge of the walkway and the computer.  
“Keep your eyes open Hiro-san, keep looking at me.” For some reason, Hiroki just couldn’t go along with Nowaki’s plan this time. Hiroki closed his eyes and let his exhaustion overtake him.

~~~

When Hiroi finally awoke, it was to the sound of a clinical beeping and the feeling of a hand holding his own. He pried his eyes open to observe his surroundings. He was lying in what seemed to be a hospital room, albeit rather bare, with a heart moniter and IV hooked up to his arm. The gashes, had been bandaged up too. Hiroki’s eyes trailed over to the man sitting next to him. Nowaki looked at him, relief in his expression  
“You’re awake.”  
“Yeah…” Hiroki said as he tried to sit up, the movement sent a wave of dizziness over him, and he almost lost his balance.  
“Woah woah woah take it easy, sit up slowly.” Nowaki helped him into a sitting position, propping pillows behind him. Hiroki lifted his bandaged arm to his face so he could examine it; a faint pinkish stain told him that the cuts were real. He looked over at the doctor  
“What happened down there?”  
Nowaki looked at a loss  
“I…I don’t know, honestly. I couldn’t say anything and be 100% certain.” He took a seat at the foot of the bed “Although I do have one theory.”  
“Go on?”  
“Hiro-san, when you entered the game, were you in a public place?”  
“Yeah, my school.”  
“That makes sense… that makes so much sense!” Nowaki leapt up suddenly pacing around the room, mumbling too quiet for Hiroki to hear  
“hey hey, what makes sense?” Nowaki looked over at him, a spark in his grey eyes  
“You’re in a coma.”  
“I’m in a what?”  
“Those pajamas you’re wearing, they’re hospital clothes. The tears on your arm too are exactly where an IV drip would connect.”  
“But I’m here? How can I be in a coma?”  
“Hiro-san, what if it’s only your consciousness which is here, and your body is still in the real world?”  
Hiroki opened his mouth to protest but shut it almost immediately. It wasn’t… impossible. In fact, it almost made sense.  
“What about you?”  
Nowaki took a little longer to reply than previously. Then, in a matter of fact voice he said  
“I’ve probably been abducted then.”  
“What the hell?”  
“I say I, I mean we… The VR console must have been a trap to lure us in here. The fact that I’m still here makes me think that whoever is running this thing is keeping our bodies alive for some reason… I can’t imagine what though.”  
“But… If I’m not here, then how am I wearing hospital clothes? How do I have injuries from the real world?”  
Nowaki’s grin returned  
“I think you triggered something, when pulling out those wires, you managed, however briefly to reconnect with the outside world. And your… character, updated.”

Hiroki looked down at his clothes and suddenly a though rushed into his head. Of course he was in hospital. Because way back in the beginning, when he tried to power down the computer with ‘Marukawa Knights: the quest’ on it, he felt the wind get knocked out of him, as though his brain had been knocked out of his body. And as though his brain had been knocked out of his body, he watched himself fall to the ground in third person. He saw his own body fall next to two smaller figures he hadn’t seen upon entering the room. He couldn’t register who they were before he had blinked into a world of zeroes and ones. He felt a hand on his shoulder, rousing him from the memory.

“Hiro-san what happened?”  
“I remember… I remember how I got here. Before it was just binary and then I opened my eyes in the zombie game. Now I remember. You’re right, you’re 100% right our bodies are still in the real world.”  
“If you remembered that from only touching the wires…”  
“…Then maybe we could find one of the former tech employees and bring them to the settings? If they get their memories back like I did, then we might have a way out after all!” 

Nowaki was practically glowing with a relief he hadn’t felt in years. Hiroki could see an invisible weight lift off his shoulders at the thought of finally being a step closer to escaping. Overcome with emotion, it seemed, Nowaki pulled Hiroki into a tight hug  
“I can’t believe we managed this much… in only a few days.” Hiroki felt a smile tug onto his lips  
“We make a good team I suppose” Nowaki pulled back and looked at him happily  
“You think so?” Hiroki averted his eyes, ignoring the blush which was creeping up his cheeks  
“Yeah”

He felt a hand caress his cheek and lift his head so his face was only inches away from Nowaki’s. His thumb was rubbing circles into the smooth flesh. Hiroki’s eyes flickered down to his lips then back up to his eyes. The younger man smiled and closed the distance between them only briefly. The kiss was quick but reassuring, just enough to let Hiroki know that the promise of something later was definitely on the cards.

“We should get back to the sims, I bet you don’t want to walk around everywhere in Pajamas.”  
“Good plan.”  
“Can you stand?” Nowaki stepped away from the bed to give Hiroki space. After a few cautious steps with only a little support from Nowaki, he was surprised to see that he felt almost entirely back to normal. Together with the doctor he walked through the hospital which Nowaki informed him was  
“Hospital Simulator 2000”  
“I’ve never heard of it”  
“Well it was sent to my hospital on a trial basis, it never really took off though”  
“I wonder why..” Hiroki replied sarcastically  
“I liked it!”  
“Of course you did.” 

Nowaki led him to a cupboard which had been marked with a panda. With Nowaki holding Hiroki only a little tighter than usual, they ran through the door.

As they ran through the matrix filled with zeroes and ones, something caught his eye. He turned to see a spec growing larger in his peripheral vision. As it came closer, he realized that it was a person. A person who, apparently knew who he was as it shouted out to him as they passed  
“Kamijoh-sensei!?” The voice was instantly familiar as one of the students from his class.  
He opened his mouth and called out  
“Takahashi?” but the boy disappeared before the word even left his lips. He felt his feet connect with the ground not a moment later. He whirled around to Nowaki, who’s eyes were as wide as his own.

“There is no way one of my students is in the game.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Tune in next time for some Misaki-madness!

**Author's Note:**

> I got really depressed writing my zombie story so here I give you my ridiculous video game au! Enjoy, try not to take it too seriously haha! :)


End file.
